Report 2012-121.1 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2012-121.1: Department of Parks and Recreation: Weak Procedures Have Led to Inconsistent Budgetary Reporting and Difficulties in Measuring the Impact of Efforts to Keep Parks Open (Release Date: February 2013)

Recommendation #5 To: Parks and Recreation, Department of

To ensure accurate reporting of expenditures and prior-year adjustment amounts to Finance for the governor's budget, the department's budget office should continue its planned efforts to establish policies and procedures. These procedures should include specific steps to identify, investigate, resolve, and document differences in reporting by the budget and accounting offices.

1-Year Agency Response

As with Response 1, Budget office staff created procedures regarding the process for reconciling year-end financial statements between DOF and SCO. These procedures were created and tested when reconciling the financial statements for the last FY. Revisions were made, based on recent changes made by DOF, and the procedures were finalized.

Attached procedures (Fund Condition, Schedule 10R Procedures, Support Schedule 10 Procedures, and Year-End Reports) include detailed policies and procedures to ensure that the Department provides reporting of consistent amounts of prior-year accounting information, expenditures, and prior-year adjustment amounts to DOF and SCO. These procedures provide specific steps to ensure that the ending fund balances agree, and specify how to identify, investigate, resolve, and report differences by the Budget and Accounting Offices.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

The process of reporting expenditures is through the schedule 10 process. The Department has developed procedures for completing the schedule 10's to meet the DOF deadlines each year. Expenditures and prior year adjustment amounts for the funds that DPR administers are reported by producing a Fund Condition Statement. This year DOF has implemented a new reporting procedure through the DF 303 that requires dual reporting from the Accounting and Budgeting Officers with validation by an executive staff member.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

Although the department has developed procedures for completing the schedule 10 process, those procedures do not include steps to investigate, resolve, and document any differences identified by the department. Regardless of procedures implemented by Finance, the department should develop its own procedures to ensure accurate reporting of expenditures and prior-year adjustments to Finance.

All Recommendations in 2012-121.1

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.