USDOE Raises Concern About Receipt of Goods

17293927

The US Department of Education has expressed concerns with actions taken by the Office of Procurement and the Chief Procurement Officer in telling departments that the receipt of goods procured through purchase orders must be received by the Office of Procurement, Shipping and Receiving Division.

The concern is noted in a report by ASG to the federal agency explaining the progress it has made in correcting outstanding deficiencies which led to the high risk designation.

USDOE said requiring all goods to be received and receipted by the Office of Procurement would result in a serious breakdown in internal controls.

Instead, the receiving division of Procurement must be completely independent of the Office of Procurement since the purchase orders are ultimately approved by the Office of Procurement.

USDOE requires that ASG cease to provide training based on the change in procedures and to take the necessary action to immediately correct this issue.

USDOE is requesting ASG to provide a status of the progress and the time line.

USODE said it continues to be concerned with ASG’s lack of procedures/controls to prevent departments and agencies from bypassing the Central Procurement Office for purchases.

Keeping tabs of and accounting for ASG property and equipment was also a problem that USDOE raised.

It says what’s needed is comprehensive inventory of the properties at least every two years to account for all item listed in ASG’s master property list.

In addition the list is need to compare and reconcile between the ASG general ledger and ASG’s subsidiary ledger which maintains details fiscal information for all properties.

USDOE says its critical to develop and implement a comprehensive and centralize government wide capital assets policy and maintain and effective property management system.

ASG is in the process of upgrading its IFAS system to account of fixed assets.

But USDOE said based on the issues ASG discussed in it semi annual report on the high risk designation, it believes the property management process sis still decentralize.

And unless this is addressed the inadequate accounting of fixed assets will again appear as an audit finding.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,