Okaloosa County BOCC — November 5, 2013 — Response to October 17 2013 AG Report - 10 29 13 (3) — reading text

payments are essential to the BCC’s operations and the goods or services being paid for are available only if advance payment is made. COUNTY RESPONSE: The County agrees with the audit finding and recommendations. As noted, the County has adopted amendments to its Purchasing Manual on April 2, 2013 which significantly strengthened the review and documentation required for expenditures. The County will continue to review and strengthen these controls, as necessary, including limitations on the advancement of payments. 9  TRAVEL Finding No. 13: Several County Commissioners received monthly travel allowances based on typical months’ travel statements that were outdated, included unallowed mileage, or did not include adequate descriptions of the travel claimed. Recommendation: The BCC should strengthen its procedures to ensure that travel allowances are paid based on typical month’s travel statements that are updated annually, include sufficiently detailed information, and are correctly calculated in accordance with the provisions of law and guidance provided in applicable Attorney General opinions. COUNTY RESPONSE: Though the County does not necessarily agree that all of the examples cited in the Finding were contrary to the requirements of law, the County will review and revise where necessary, its procedures to ensure that travel allowances are paid based upon the requirements of Florida law. CONTRIBUTIONS Finding No. 14: The BCC had not adopted policies and procedures for making contributions to private nonprofit corporations. Also, the BCC did not consistently document how contributions to the corporations served an authorized public purpose, require the corporations to enter into a written agreement stating the purpose for which the contributions should be used, or obtain a subsequent accounting from the corporations as to how the contributions were ultimately used. Recommendation: The BCC should adopt written policies and procedures addressing criteria to be used to make contributions to private nonprofit corporations, the methodology for calculating the amount of the contributions, and the responsibilities of the corporations receiving the contributions to provide an accounting as to how the contributions were ultimately used. In addition, the BCC should document how each contribution serves an authorized public purpose and obtain a subsequent accounting from each corporation to document that the authorized public purpose was accomplished. COUNTY RESPONSE: The County agrees with the findings and recommendations. The County will consider the adoption of written policies and procedures addressing criteria to be used to make contributions to private nonprofit corporations, the methodology for calculating the amount of the contributions, and the responsibilities of the corporations receiving the contributions to provide an accounting as to how the contributions were ultimately used. In addition, the County will strengthen its procedures to establish how contributions serve a public purpose. MOTOR VEHICLES 10 Finding No. 15: The BCC had not established adequate controls over the use of fuel cards. Recommendation: The BCC should continue its efforts to strengthen controls over the use of fuel cards by requiring BCC departments to retain all receipts from retail locations and perform reconciliations of fuel charges to those receipts. COUNTY RESPONSE: The County agrees with the audit finding and recommendation. The County currently monitors fuel sales through a variety of documentation. The primary source of review is the electronic transaction data which establishes the purchaser, the fuel card number, the vehicle that was fueled, the fueling location, the amount purchased and the price. The County has already reviewed the parameters for all fuel cards and adjusted the parameters where appropriate. The County will continue to review its procedures and controls to provide assurance that adequate documentation is available. The County will also strengthen its vehicle usage procedures to include fuel consumption parameters and more effective use of its fuel card exception reports. Further, the County will review the viability of requiring user department reconciliation of fuel charges to gas receipts and the retention of all gas receipts by user departments. Findings 16 through 21 are directed to the Clerk of the Circuit Court and as such, no response is required by the County. 11