KINGSTON – A follow up audit of the Ulster County Public Works Department small equipment inventory control has found that new policy and procedure address most of the concerns in the county comptroller’s audit in 2016.
Among the findings of the initial comptroller’s report were a lack of written policies and procedures to properly safeguard small equipment, informal and inadequate internal audits of inventory, difficulty in locating equipment and matching asset serial numbers to inventory listings, and an insufficient disposal process for unusable and obsolete items.
Comptroller Elliott Auerbach said in addition to the increased monitoring efficiencies from a modern software system and the creation of a property control officer, DPW’s adopted policy and procedure inventory control of small equipment requires:
Assets to be engraved with an identifiable serial number linked to inventory records;
Physical inspections of all records performed at least annually;
Employee acknowledgement of a blanket prohibition against personal use of equipment;
Better segregation of duties with regard to assigning, purchasing, receiving, and recording items;
More secure storage of equipment
Formal parameters for disposing items.
“Whether to delineate duties, promote accountability, or deter against fraud, waste, and abuse, formal policies and procedures are integral to proper internal controls,” said Auerbach. “I commend DPW’s new leadership for committing to ensure that all county equipment is accounted for under their watchful eye by incorporating many of our previous – and current – recommendations.”
