04/05/02
By MEGAN N. WALDE
Times Staff Writer [email protected]
A state audit of Alabama A&M University released today points up enough sloppy bookkeeping that a state examiner said it is unclear whether any money is actually missing.
The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts lists discrepancies in the university's financial records for 1996-2000. The audit also cites ongoing concerns not addressed since A&M's last state audit in 1998.
Examiner of Public Accounts Larry Williard would not call the audit good or bad, but did say there were "a lot of obvious errors."
Among the findings:
Deposits that couldn't be traced to A&M's bank statements.
A $1.26 million difference between a 2000 year-end bank statement and the university's financial statement.
Inaccurate listing and pricing of equipment purchased by the university.
Incorrect placement of athletic revenue into various university foundation accounts instead of general university accounts. There are fewer controls over spending from foundation accounts.
Haresh Khanna, former vice president of business and finance at A&M, said this morning he wanted to read the report before commenting. Rod Steakley, the university's attorney, could not be reached for comment this morning.
Williard said his job is simply to identify errors and State audit finds sloppy bookkeeping at university A&M Continued from page A1 leave it to the university to fix them. "There's a lot of ways these (errors) can happen," he said. "I don't judge why it happened, just what happened and leave it at that."
Williard said a big concern with the A&M books is the lack of detailed records. A general ledger gives categories, such as revenue and expenditures, as well as total amounts. But subsidiary records are where you can actually see how those dollars were spent, Williard said, and A&M doesn't have those details in many cases, according to the audit.
Williard said the department tries to conduct annual audits of public entities, so the four-year audit of A&M is unusual.
"A lot of timing things caused problems," he said.
A&M's next audit is scheduled for this summer, Williard said.
The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts audits the books, accounts and records of all entities receiving or disbursing public money. Most of its audit work is doing traditional financial and compliance audits, which focus on two areas: reliability and accuracy of financial statements and compliance with laws and regulations governing those statements.
By MEGAN N. WALDE
Times Staff Writer [email protected]
A state audit of Alabama A&M University released today points up enough sloppy bookkeeping that a state examiner said it is unclear whether any money is actually missing.
The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts lists discrepancies in the university's financial records for 1996-2000. The audit also cites ongoing concerns not addressed since A&M's last state audit in 1998.
Examiner of Public Accounts Larry Williard would not call the audit good or bad, but did say there were "a lot of obvious errors."
Among the findings:
Deposits that couldn't be traced to A&M's bank statements.
A $1.26 million difference between a 2000 year-end bank statement and the university's financial statement.
Inaccurate listing and pricing of equipment purchased by the university.
Incorrect placement of athletic revenue into various university foundation accounts instead of general university accounts. There are fewer controls over spending from foundation accounts.
Haresh Khanna, former vice president of business and finance at A&M, said this morning he wanted to read the report before commenting. Rod Steakley, the university's attorney, could not be reached for comment this morning.
Williard said his job is simply to identify errors and State audit finds sloppy bookkeeping at university A&M Continued from page A1 leave it to the university to fix them. "There's a lot of ways these (errors) can happen," he said. "I don't judge why it happened, just what happened and leave it at that."
Williard said a big concern with the A&M books is the lack of detailed records. A general ledger gives categories, such as revenue and expenditures, as well as total amounts. But subsidiary records are where you can actually see how those dollars were spent, Williard said, and A&M doesn't have those details in many cases, according to the audit.
Williard said the department tries to conduct annual audits of public entities, so the four-year audit of A&M is unusual.
"A lot of timing things caused problems," he said.
A&M's next audit is scheduled for this summer, Williard said.
The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts audits the books, accounts and records of all entities receiving or disbursing public money. Most of its audit work is doing traditional financial and compliance audits, which focus on two areas: reliability and accuracy of financial statements and compliance with laws and regulations governing those statements.
