text: School Financial Report Includes Improvement Tips - tribunedigital-sunsentinel
  March 14, 1986|By Ken Swart, Education Writer
  The district`s maintenance department should update its inventory files.
  Those are some of the recommendations in a ``management letter`` accompanying a ``comprehensive annual financial report`` of the district for the 1984-85 fiscal year, released Thursday by schools Superintendent Tom Mills.
  Firm representatives said, ``Our study and evaluation (of the district`s internal accounting controls) disclosed no condition that we believe is a material weakness.
  ``Our study and evaluation did, however, disclose the following conditions, that, although not considered by us to be material weaknesses, are weaknesses in internal accounting control for which corrective action should be taken,`` representatives wrote.
  Of the 14 recommendations listed in the firm`s letter, half suggest minor changes in the district`s Management Information Services Department.
  For example, firm representatives said district employees should have their computer sign-on codes changed more frequently as a security measure, although they acknowleged ``the process of changing passwords is cumbersome and time- consuming.``
  District officials wrote in response: ``Passwords involving the financial systems will be revised at randomly selected intervals.``
  For example, firm representatives warn, ``A number of elementary school cafeterias do not use cash registers and certain secondary schools have obsolete or broken registers. Consideration should be given to installing cash registers at all elementary schools and repairing or replacing those in secondary schools.``
  District officials responded: ``The Department of School Food Service would like to see cash registers for all schools. However, any funds for such a project must come from the Food Service operating budget and currently there is not $480,000 available to outfit 160 serving lines.``
  ``There`s not a suspicion that anything we`re doing is wrong,`` Mills said. He called such audits ``simply good management practice.``