USDB audit prompts committee to seek strategic plan, internal controls consultancy and code clarifications

The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) standing committee spent the bulk of its September meeting reviewing a recently released internal audit and voted on a set of recommendations intended to clarify governance, strengthen internal controls and align policy and finance structures.

Nut graf: Committee members and USDB leadership said the audit identified gaps in organizational structure, policy completeness, data accuracy and internal controls. The committee unanimously asked staff to return with specific recommendations on the advisory council’s role, strategic planning, possible consolidation of certain accounts, and to seek board support for an internal-audit consultancy to build internal controls and reporting systems.

Committee discussion and votes USDB Interim Superintendent Subhashinda Hart led an overview of the audit, grouping recommendations into four “buckets”: organizational structure, competency/accountability/metrics, policy completeness, and data and funding accuracy. Hart said those pieces together form a “skeleton” for the agency and recommended a strategic plan, an internal control environment and a policy-calendar process as the primary steps forward.

Board members repeatedly asked for clarity on the advisory council’s role. The audit noted that the USDB advisory council currently acts in ways similar to school community councils (SCCs) and that USDB policy, foundation donations, enrichment funds and other donated accounts are not consistently aligned or clearly documented.…