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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLegal Integrated Flw-up Published 3-24-25To request this information in an alternate format, please call (541) 330- 4674 or send email to internal.audit@Deschutes.org County Legal Integrated Audit Follow-up: Fraud risks addressed but performance reporting still pending March 2025 Our 2024 audit of the County Legal Department found areas for improvement related to performance reporting and cash handling. Nine months later, the Department conducted a fraud risk assessment and updated procedures such as a new cash handling policy with better segregation of duties. The Department was still working on updating performance measures to better describe what the Department does and how well it does it. Deschutes County Office of the Internal Auditor Page 1 of 2 Audit Follow-up Report: March 2025 County Legal Integrated Audit Recommendation Status Key: Initial finding: When any organization collects revenue there is always the potential for fraud. The Department had not conducted and documented a fraud risk assessment to brainstorm ideas about how someone might defraud the County and then come up with processes to prevent it from happening. Recommendation: County Legal should conduct a fraud risk assessment, and document outcomes. Update: County Legal conducted fraud risk assessment identifying risks related to cash receipting, purchasing and office supply inventory. The Department adopted procedures to address these risks. Initial finding: No fraud was discovered, but the Legal Department did not have documented procedures for mitigating cash handling risks. Recommendation: County Legal should document and implement procedures to address fraud risks identified in risk assessments. Update: County Legal created and implemented a check handling policy that segregates duties. 2 Resolved 1 In Process 0 Accept Risk Management addressed risk. Auditors will no longer monitor. Recommendations are in progress. Auditors will continue to monitor. Management accepted the risk of not implementing the recommendation. Risk areas identified and addressed. New procedures segregate duties to protect revenue. Deschutes County Office of the Internal Auditor Page 2 of 2 Audit Follow-up Report: March 2025 County Legal Integrated Audit Initial finding: The Legal Department's performance reporting did not provide clear information about how well it functioned. Recommendation: County Legal should create new performance measures that are more useful, relevant, and adequate and consider measures used by benchmark counties including staff workload, timeliness, and satisfaction. Update: The Department said it would report on improved measures prior to the start of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget cycle. At the time of the March 2025 update the measures were not updated yet. Next Steps: We will continue to report on the status of in process audit recommendations in our Global Follow-up Report at the end of each calendar year. More descriptive performance reporting in the works. Deschutes County Office of the Internal Auditor Audit Follow-up Report: County Legal Integrated Audit The mission of the Office of Internal Audit is to improve the performance of Deschutes County government and to provide accountability to residents. We examine and evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of operations through an objective, disciplined, and systematic approach. The Office of Internal Audit: Audit committee: Elizabeth Pape – County Internal Auditor Daryl Parrish, Chair - Public member Phil Anderson – Public member Jodi Burch – Public member Phone: 541-330-4674 Joe Healy - Public member Email: internal.audit@deschutes.org Summer Sears – Public member Web: www.deschutes.org/auditor Kristin Toney - Public member Patti Adair, County Commissioner Charles Fadeley, Justice of the Peace Lee Randall, Facilities Director If you would like to receive future reports and information from Internal Audit or know someone else who might like to receive our updates, sign up at http://bit.ly/DCInternalAudit.