Sacramento County Grand Jury
• 2017-2018
Strengthening the Internal Audit Functions of Sacramento County
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
The Sacramento County Internal Audit Unit lacks the necessary independence to perform operational audits and report their findings directly to the Board of Supervisors. Currently, there are five separate levels of supervision between the unit and the Board. As stated earlier, the grand jury believes that these multiple layers of reporting can diminish accuracy, effectiveness, and accountability.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Create an elected position of County Auditor. Remove the Internal Audit Unit from the Department of Finance, eliminating unnecessary levels of supervision.
F2
Sacramento County lacks a process for independent outside operational audits. The current practice is for departments to perform operational audits from within, using an operational audit team composed of members of that department. This approach reinforces long standing practices, and does not lend itself to innovation, efficiency and streamlining.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Emphasize independent operational audits to review processes and procedures. Emphasize Risk Assessment Modeling to develop operational audits and scheduling.
F3
There is a lack of public transparency in the current audit process. Websites are disorganized and confusing. It is not easy to find a current schedule of audits or past audits. There are no clear mission statements or objectives shown for the Department of Finance or its sections.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Establish a strong mission statement and objectives for the Internal Audit Unit. In order to ensure increased transparency, the County should work to improve its website and to support it, using a dedicated individual, either from the Department of Finance or from the County’s Information Technology support staff.
F4
Current staffing levels are not at maximum strength and are not sufficient to undertake an increased role in performing internal operational audits.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Staffing increases are necessary to also undertake operational audit workloads.
F5
Sacramento County currently lacks staff in the audit section with the breadth of experience or broader education to also process operational audits, in addition to financial audits.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Hire and retain staff with a wide breadth of education and experience that they can bring to operational and process audits.
F6
Audit Reports that are available to the public are often written to address specific accounting and legal needs and are not readily understandable to the public. Reports conform to financial standards, requiring some degree of experience on behalf of the reader.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
Make all reports more transparent to the public, particularly the readability and accessibility of completed operational and performance audits.
F7
The Audit Committee is comprised of department heads. Other governments that have established audit committees have included decision-makers (elected officials) and members of the public to assist the Board and the Auditor in fulfilling oversight responsibilities. 24
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Maintain and expand the Audit Committee to include one or two members of the Board of Supervisors. The Board should also consider appointing members of the Public to the Audit Committee
F8
The Internal Audit Unit, as well as the Department of Finance as a whole, are understaffed in IT Support. Maintaining transparency of operations to the public is difficult, if not impossible, without adequate IT support.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
Improve Information Technology support for the Internal Audit Unit and for the Department of Finance.
F9
The Internal Auditor has infrequent, irregular input to the COMPASS Steering Committee.
Related Recommendations (1)
R9
The Auditor should be a permanent member of the COMPASS Steering Committee. 25
Conclusions 2
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CL1 Page 13Sacramento County is in the first steps of transforming their audit process from financial reviews to include independent performance and operational reviews. The grand jury recognizes that Sacramento County is taking this initial step, but it will require hard work, diligence and a significant change from “everyday” procedures to ensure the success of this shift. The grand jury recognizes that the transition from current practices to the ‘optimal’ practices, outlined in this report and in the consultant’s proposal, will be a multi-year process. It is critical that the elected officials of the County of Sacramento continually review the process and take the necessary steps to ensure its success. 23
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CL2 Page 14The grand jury identified the following findings and offers the following recommendations:
No Responses Found 2
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Sacramento County
County
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office