Follow-Up Audit of Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) Bus Operations Cash Handling, December 2017

5 | F o l l o w - u p o f S C A T B u s O p e r a t i o n s C a s h H a n d l i n g D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 Open Conditions and Pending Corrective Action Four of the nine conditions indentified in the original report remain open and continue to require management attention. 4. Departmental Policy and Procedures for reconciliation . Current Status, Follow-Up Audit dated August 2017: The policy and procedure for reconciling the physical cash count to the GFI system report has been updated to reflect a 3% acceptable variance. However, there was no documented justification provided for how management arrived at this decision and no guidance on what actions to take when the variance exceeds the management determined acceptable variance. The policy and procedures do not include processes for verifying amounts posted in the general ledger to the retained copies of deposit documentation, as is required in Accounting Policies and Procedures, 9.2, Business Center Receipt, Balance, and Deposit of Cash . The processes should include recording the over/short detected by the bank on the spreadsheet maintained by SCAT management. [See No. 6, Monitoring of over/short detected by bank, page 9] Original Audit Observation, Report dated November 2016: It was observed that the policy and procedure for reconciling the physical cash count to the GFI system report is not approved by the department director. The draft document includes an acceptable 7% variance; however, management could not provide justification as to why this is an acceptable variance. Additionally, the document does not include what to do if the variance is larger than the acceptable amount. Accounting Policies and Procedures, 9.2, Business Center Receipt, Balance, and Deposit of Cash, procedures for Business Center, number 12, states that business centers are to, “Verify the amount posted to IFAS agrees to the pink copy of the Banks Deposit Slip and to the Receipt for Deposit of County Funds. Notify the Finance Department immediately of any discrepancies.” Management advised that their processes do not include verification that the amount posted to the general ledger agrees with the retained copies of the bank deposit slip and the RFDCF.