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Audit Buzz Newsletter
June 2024
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Engagement and Office Updates
This will be the last issue of Audit Buzz before school starts in the Fall. In this issue of the Audit Buzz, we provide an update on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Risk Assessment and Proposed Audit Plan along with current engagements, explain the 5C's of an audit finding in the Knowledge Hive, offer a training opportunity to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) employees, and advertise for a School Board Audit Committee community member position.
Prior editions of Audit Buzz are archived here on Office of Auditor General's (OAG) website.
As always, we appreciate the cooperation and courtesies extended to our staff by FCPS management and staff during all past, current, and future audit engagements.
Before we get to the details of this issue, here is a challenge to test your audit knowledge:
Say What You See
*Hint: this is two words
FY25 OAG Risk Assessment and Proposed Audit Plan
At the June 13 School Board meeting (video link time stamp: 3:33:20), OAG presented the proposed FY25 Risk Assessment and Proposed Audit Plan Presentation and Document. OAG also discussed the proposed audit plan at the June 25 School Board Work Session video. OAG is scheduled to present the final plan for School Board approval at the July 11 School Board meeting.
Current Engagement Update
The June 18 Audit Committee meeting was cancelled. OAG was scheduled to present the following agenda items:
Knowledge Hive
What are the 5C's of an Audit Finding
A finding is a statement that summarizes what OAG discovered during an audit which is detailed in the audit report. OAG follows the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) guidelines to draft the audit findings. Per GAGAS, auditors should develop the elements of the findings to the extent necessary to assist management or oversight officials of the audited entity in understanding the need for corrective action. An audit finding is composed of five elements: criteria, condition, cause, effect (consequence), and recommendation (corrective action).
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Criteria may include the laws, regulations, contract, grant, agreements, standards, measures, expected performance, defined business practices and benchmarks against which performance is compared or evaluated.
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Condition is a statement that describes the results of the audit. The auditor will evaluate the conditions with respect to the set criteria to provide insights on where FCPS processes fall short and where it meets the criteria without fail.
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Cause highlights the underlying source of the conditions. What led to the deficiencies or non-adherence in the first place, it aims to answer.
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Consequence is the effect or the current repercussions or possible implications of the identified conditions. These could be financial, operational, reputational, legal or environmental consequences.
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Corrective action is the recommendations for solving the underlying issues. It talks about the collective efforts that will be required from people, processes and technology to remediate the prevailing conditions and meet the set criteria.
Let's review an example of an audit finding. Can you identify the finding element of the underlined statement?
During a facilities maintenance audit, OAG analyzed a sample of preventive maintenance work orders; the sample data indicated that there were 17,182 completed preventive maintenance work orders (20%) versus 68,294 reactive maintenance work orders (80%).
According to the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA): Leadership in Educational Facilities, preventive maintenance should make up between 65-85% of total maintenance. The remaining percentage of reactive maintenance should fall between 15-35%.
Per discussion with facilities maintenance management, resources, such as staff availability, has created an environment where Office of Facilities Maintenance (OFM) is mostly in response to reactive work orders which cause the preventive maintenance work orders not to be completed in a timely manner. This can have a negative impact on the life of the asset, operation, productivity and safety.
OAG recommended OFM to (a) consider forming a dedicative preventive maintenance team and (b) continue to align new apprentice positions with 'Trades for Tomorrow' to provide job opportunities to FCPS high school graduates who participated in the summer internship program.
If you guessed criteria, you are correct. This statement provides guidance based on the industry's best practice.
Did you Know?
OAG Outreach and Education: Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Opportunity
OAG is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and serves as the sponsor for the FCPS Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programs, dedicated to support FCPS employees with complimentary CPE credits required by various certification agencies. OAG is pleased to offer a new NASBA training opportunity for FCPS employees to earn up to 3 CPE credits:
Course: Managing Risk in a School Division: How Can All Employees Contribute To This Goal?
Date: July 26, 2024
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Risk management is not a new concept in FCPS. What is new is the need to integrate risk management into strategic and decision making, and how could that be integrated into our daily work at FCPS. The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of risk management (including enterprise risk at a macro level and operational risk at a micro level) and its value to a school division. The secondary focus is on concepts and applications related to risk management performed by the Office of Risk Management and risk assessment performed by the Office of Auditor General. Staff from Office of the Ombuds will join, to share how their office supports towards managing risk within FCPS.
FCPS employees may sign-up for the training on MyPDE.
School Board Seeking Audit Committee Member
Fairfax County Public Schools invites applications from community members interested in serving on the School Board Audit Committee. Applicants must reside within the boundaries of Fairfax County or Fairfax City. The Board will be appointing one committee member for a term ending June 30, 2026.
Applicants cannot be a current FCPS employee and must be able to understand general government processes as well as technical and complex financial reporting issues. Applicants should be knowledgeable about internal controls, financial statement audits, management and operational audits, and risk. The deadline to submit an application is Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
Get more information and submit an application.
Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline:
(571) 423-1333 (anonymous voicemail)
InternalAudit@fcps.edu (email is not anonymous)
Online Submission Form
[Answer: Audit Report]
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