APSU audit committee approves revised charter, internal-audit policy and FY25 revised audit plan

The Austin Peay State University Audit Committee on Feb. 27, 2025, approved a revised Audit Committee Charter, revisions to Policy 1015 (Internal Auditing) and the Fiscal Year 2025 Revised Audit Plan by voice vote.

Committee members and staff said the documents were changed to reflect updates to professional auditing standards and to adjust the internal audit office’s near-term workload.

Mr. Blaine Clements, chief audit officer, told the committee that Tennessee law requires the university’s internal audit office to follow the Institute of Internal Auditors’ standards and that the IIA made substantive changes effective Jan. 5. "Tennessee law requires the office of internal audit to adhere to the Institute of Internal Auditors' standards. Those standards... changed and effective January fifth of this year," Clements said. He said the revisions update names and purpose statements in APSU documents and align university policy with the new guidance.

Clements said the state Comptroller of the Treasury approved the revised Audit Committee Charter on Dec. 9, 2024, and that the university policy committee and president approved the revisions to Policy 1015. The committee then voted to adopt the documents as presented.

On the Fiscal Year 2025 Revised Audit Plan, Clements said the office largely kept the plan on course but swapped the timing of two items: it removed a planned audit of management’s risk assessment for academic affairs and deferred that work until after the university’s incoming provost can provide input. "We dropped that off, we selected to do the risk assessment for FNA financing administration, which is due next year," Clements said. He also said the office added an audit of the Childcare Learning Center because the unit is expanding staff and operations, which creates a different risk profile.

All three action items were approved by voice vote. Meeting materials and the transcript record the motions and that the chair called for "ayes"; the committee recorded affirmative voice votes and no roll-call vote or numerical tally was provided in the meeting record.

The approvals put the revised charter and policy into effect at the university level and set the internal audit office’s work plan for the near term. The committee did not request additional changes to the documents during the meeting. The public portion of the meeting adjourned after the information items that followed.

Ending: The committee’s approvals align APSU’s audit governance and procedures with recently updated professional standards and move a childcare-center audit into the FY25 work program while deferring an academic-affairs risk assessment until after the incoming provost provides input.