Okaloosa County BOCC — December 4, 2012 — Internal Auditing Services — reading text

ending September 30, 2011. The County's organizational chart can be found in Appendix H. Per Florida Statutes, the Clerk of Circuit Court is charged with maintaining the books and records of the County. As such, the accounting and financial reporting functions of Okaloosa County are centralized within the County Finance Department. The Okaloosa County Clerk Finance Department’s organizational chart can be found in Appendix I. Detailed information on the government and its finances can be found in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and the annual Budget Document. Both are available for review on the County website at www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/bcc_budgets.html. Okaloosa County provides the normal range of governmental services provided by Florida Counties, including general government, public safety, physical environment, transportation, economic environment, culture/recreation, and court-related services. In addition, there are a variety of enterprise activities, including water and sewer utility, three airports, solid waste disposal, building inspection, emergency medical and convention center operation services. B. Fund Structure Okaloosa County uses the following major funds and non-major funds in its financial reporting: Major Funds Non-Major Funds General 14 - Special Revenue Funds County Transportation Trust Special Revenue 1 - Debt Service Fund Tourist Development Special Revenue Fund 1 - Capital Outlay Fund Capital Outlay Construction Trust 2 - Enterprise Funds Water & Sewer Enterprise Fund 2 - Internal Service Funds Airport Enterprise Fund Solid Waste Enterprise Fund Convention Center Enterprise Fund C. Budgetary Basis of Accounting 5  Okaloosa County prepares its budgets on a basis consistent with generally accepted accounting principles. Formal budgetary integration is employed as the legal authority for expenditures and as a management control device during the fiscal year for all funds. Okaloosa County’s Board of County Commissioners year-end budget for fiscal year 2013 was $257 million. D. Federal Awards and State Financial Assistance During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2011, Okaloosa County expended $16 million in Federal awards and $4.4 million in State financial assistance. Major federal programs include the Recovery Act Juvenile Assistance Grant, Airport Improvement, Federal Transit Formula, Highway Planning and Construction and Formula grants for other than Urbanized Areas issued via the US Department of Transportation. Major state projects include Economic Development Transportation, Aviation Development, Public Transit Block and State Infrastructure Bank grants issued by the Executive Office of the Governor and the Florida Department of Transportation. E. Pension Plans Okaloosa County participates in the defined benefit plan of the State of Florida Retirement System, a cost sharing, multiple-employer public employee retirement system. F. Magnitude of Finance Operations The County Finance Department is headed by Gary J. Stanford, CPFO, CGFO, Finance Director, and consists of approximately 11 employees, not including the Internal Audit staff that is made up of two additional employees. The organizational chart of the Finance Department can be found in Appendix I. G. Computer Systems The County's computers are networked within the Clerk of Court and Board of County Commissioners offices throughout the County. The Board of County Commissioners fund financial records utilize Pentamation Open Series Financial and Human Resource accounting software, as distributed by Sungard, Inc. to record financial activity. The system includes General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Payable, Budgeting, Personnel, Payroll, Purchasing and Fixed Assets. All Clerk employees and most Board employees have a personal computer with Microsoft Excel and Word and other software applications along with access to the accounting system. H. Internal Audit Function Okaloosa County has maintained an internal audit function for the past fifteen years. The internal audit function reports to Tim Pozza, CPA, CIA, Director of Internal Audit and is staffed by one other employee responsible primarily for the collection, reporting and enforcement of Okaloosa County’s self-administered tourist development taxes. The internal audit function in this RFP would work in collaboration with the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s internal auditor. III. Proposal Format and Submittals A. Overall Content of Proposal 6  The following material is required to be included within the proposal package: 1. Cover Letter - showing the Request for Proposals subject, the legal name, address and telephone number of the proposer (company, firm, partnership, individual). The cover letter shall contain the name, address and telephone number of a contact person. The cover letter must be signed and dated by the person who has authority to bind the proposing firm to the submitted proposal. 2. Table of Contents - cross-referenced to proposal requirements. 3. Detailed Proposal – as outlined below in the Technical Proposal section. Firms not addressing the specific points may be denied further consideration. 4. References – List 3 references representative of related past experience to include, as a minimum, a contact person, company name, phone #, and a brief description of the project. 5. Litigation – Provide a list of any litigation your firm is currently engaged in. B. Technical Proposal The purpose of the technical proposal is to demonstrate the qualifications, competence and capacity of the firms seeking to undertake internal audit services for Okaloosa County in conformity with the requirements of this Request for Proposals. As such, the substance of proposals will carry more weight than their form or manner of presentation. The technical proposal should demonstrate the qualifications of the firm and of the particular staff to be assigned to this engagement. It should also specify an audit approach that will meet the Request for Proposals requirements. The technical proposal should address all the points outlined in the Request for Proposals. The proposal should be prepared simply and economically, providing a straightforward, concise description of the proposer's capabilities to satisfy the requirements of the Request for Proposals. 1. Mandatory Elements a) Independence The firm should provide an affirmative statement that it is independent of Okaloosa County as defined by generally accepted auditing standards and the U.S. General Accounting Office's Government Auditing Standards. The firm also should provide an affirmative statement that it is independent of all of the component units of Okaloosa County as defined by those same standards. The firm should also list and describe the firm's (or proposed subcontractor's) professional relationships involving Okaloosa County or any of its agencies or component units for the past five (5) years, together with a statement explaining why such relationships do not constitute a conflict of interest relative to performing the proposed audit. In addition, the firm shall give Okaloosa County written notice of any professional relationships entered into during the period of this agreement. 7  b) Licensed to Practice in Florida An affirmative statement should be included indicating that the firm and all assigned key professional staff are properly registered/licensed to practice in Florida. c) Continuing Professional Education Required under Government Auditing Standards The firm should provide an affirmative statement that all professional personnel have received adequate continuing professional education, as required under Government Auditing Standards, within the preceding two (2) years. d) Quality Control Review The firm is required to submit a copy of the report on its most recent external quality control review, with a statement whether or not that quality control review included a review of specific government engagements. The firm shall also provide information on the results of any Federal or State desk reviews or field reviews of its audits during the past three (3) years. In addition, the firm shall provide information on the circumstances and status of any disciplinary action taken or pending against the firm during the past three (3) years with state regulatory bodies or professional organizations. 2. Technical Qualifications a) Expertise and Experience The proposal should state the size of the firm, the size of the firm's governmental internal audit staff, the location of the office from which the work on this engagement is to be performed and the number and nature of the professional staff to be employed in this engagement on a full-time basis and the number and nature of the staff to be so employed on a part-time basis. If the proposer is a joint venture or consortium, the qualifications of each firm comprising the joint venture or consortium should be separately identified and the firm that is to serve as the principal auditor should be noted, if applicable. For the firm's office that will be assigned responsibility for the internal audit function, list the most significant engagements (maximum of 5) performed in the last five (5) years that are similar to the engagement described in this Request for Proposals (both governmental and internal audit services for other organizations). These engagements should be ranked on the basis of total staff hours. Indicate the scope of work, date, engagement partners, total hours, and the name and telephone number of the principal client contact. These individuals may be contacted by the County to provide references. The firm should list separately all engagements within the last five (5) years, ranked on the basis of total staff hours, for Okaloosa County by type of engagement (i.e., audit, management advisory services, other). For each engagement, the firm should indicate the scope of work, date, engagement partners, total hours, the location of the firm's office from which the engagement was performed, and the name and telephone number of the principal client contact. 8  The firm should identify the principal supervisory and management staff, including engagement partners, managers, other supervisors and specialists who would be assigned to the