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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
February 13, 2001
Report No. 2001-08
The following areas of
concern were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the
Department of Revenue, Division of Administration.
The
Department of Revenue processes all financial accounting activity including
budget, purchasing, revenues, and expenditures (on-line) using the Statewide
Advantage for Missouri system (SAM II).� The significance of the information processed through SAM II requires
that controls be in place to adequately restrict access to the system.� To provide access control over SAM II,
employees are assigned a unique user identification code (user ID).� The department is responsible for
determining what each user is allowed to do in SAM II, and grants these
permissions by assigning specific access rights to each user ID.�
During
our review of access to the SAM II system, we noted the following concerns:
The department has not developed criteria for determining who is allowed access to SAM II, the purpose and level of the access, and who determines and grants the access.� In addition, there are no policies for documenting and reporting management authorization of new access changes to existing access, or removal of current access, when an employee terminates or transfers.�
The department has not established policies and procedures to periodically review user access to SAM II.� Consequently, a listing of SAM II users, user IDs, and access rights for each employee is not maintained.� Periodic reviews are necessary for management to determine whether access privileges comply with stated criteria.
Our review of the Technology Services Bureau (TSB)
disclosed the following:
�
The Technology Services Bureau did not retain
documentation showing how charges for the sale of information were
determined.�
�
Information sales accounting duties are not adequately
segregated.�
�
A periodic reconciliation of receipts to the SAM II
system is not performed.�
�
The department understated both revenues and
expenditures of the Department of Revenue Information Fund and circumvented the
appropriation process by deducting software maintenance service charges from
the amount the Technology Services Bureau charged to the provider to purchase
motor vehicle information.� Credit memos
totaling approximately $10,000 and $20,000 were issued to the company during
the years ended June 30, 2000, and 1999, respectively.
The final paycheck for the former department Deputy
Director included $6,000 for administrative leave in addition to his regular
salary.� The justification provided for
this compensation appears to be related to overtime rather than administrative
leave.� Overtime is not generally
granted to executive staff.
The Department of Revenue postage account and meter
balances at June 30, 2000 and 1999, exceeded $1million, which appeared
excessive.� The department has made no
formal calculations of the minimum postage account and meter balances
required.� Excessive postage balances
tie up state funds and result in a loss of interest income.
The
performance bonding level of the Investment and Cash Management Office (ICMO)
employees may not be adequate.� Daily
deposits reviewed ranged from $1.5 to $8.3 million.� Each Investment and Cash Management Office employee is bonded for
$750,000.
