2016-01 Performance Audit Report: Cash Handling at County of Hawai'i's Department of Parks and Recreation

Home

Audit Objectives The Office of the Legislative Auditor's fiscal year 2015-2016 annual audit plan included a performance audit of the County of Hawai`i's Department of Parks and Recreation (P&R) cash handling process. The objectives of the audit were to evaluate if internal controls over facilities use permits at the Hilo Main Office Administration and the Kona Permit Office are preventing, detecting and deterring fraudulent transactions, whether these internal controls are following best practices, and if receipts are deposited timely and intact. Audit Scope and Methodology To accomplish our objectives, we: • Developed an understanding of the policies, procedures, processes, and document flows • Compared Hilo and Kona office's facility use permit cash handling procedures, practices, and performance measures with recommended industry best practices; • Assessed compliance with P&R's facility use permit policies and procedures, County of Hawai'i Code, County of Hawai'i Charter and State of Hawai'i Revised Statues; • Analyzed facility use permit data by comparing data extracted from the County of Hawai`i's Eden FRESH accounting system with Hilo and Kona's facility use permit supporting documents; • Corroborated information through interviews with appropriate personnel, reviewing documentation and performing test of documentation and controls; and • Reviewed additional documentation (i.e., user fee bookings, daily deposit records, courier service tickets, treasury receipts, etc.) as needed. During the course of our audit, we reviewed current internal controls procedures as well as facility use permits for the Hilo and Kona offices from July 2015 through September 2015; the Recreation Office was not included in our audit scope. The Kona Imin facility was closed due to accessibility improvements from August 3 through November 30, 2015; we therefore expanded testing at the Kona office to include June 2015. We conducted this audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), except for the standard requiring an external peer review be obtained every three years. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. Our conclusions on the effectiveness of these controls are detailed within this report. Cash Handling for Facility Use Permits : Audit Objectives, Scope & Methodology 14