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

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Inadequate safeguarding of cash receipts at the Hilo Main Office As mentioned above, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) establishes best practices for general revenue controls. These best practices include physical security procedures, which is especially important for funds not deposited the day of All cash should be adequately receipt. secured and only one employee should be Hilo's cash is kept in an unlocked drawer behind the front accountable to an individual counter where customers are served during the day. This cash drawer. drawer is unmonitored by either an appointed �1 responsible employee or cameras. At night, the Clerk takes the money to the Department of Motor Vehicles where it is locked in a safe. The Clerk then picks up the money the next business morning. In addition, more than one employee uses the cash drawer (three employees and two supervisors). As a result, it would be impossible to hold any one person accountable if cash were missing. This situation has resulted in part from management not sufficiently updating their procedures according to best practices. The Department of Parks and Recreation's policies and procedures were initially created in 2002. However, they submitted a partially updated policy and procedures on August 13, 2015. Physically securing cash and assigning accountability to a responsible employee reduces the risk of loss or theft. All employees accepting payments should have a secured, lockable cash drawer and only the employee collecting the payments should have access. If there is more than one person receiving payments at the same time, each person should have their own cash drawer. In addition, it is good practice to maintain cash records in a separate location from the cash itself. If fraud or theft does occur, the records cannot easily be taken, destroyed, or modified. Separation of cash records and cash is a simple cash security practice that can discourage theft, or at least allow the timely discovery of theft. Cash Handling for Facility Use Permits: Audit Results 113