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Audit committee approves 2024—25 plan after internal audit flags financial-aid, fees and disaster-recovery gaps
Summary
At its Aug. 14 meeting, the Louisiana Community and Technical College System Audit Committee approved the fiscal 2024—25 audit plan after the internal audit director reviewed last year's work and proposed priorities including financial-aid controls, restricted-fees reviews, ADA compliance and a new disaster-recovery audit program.
The Audit Committee of the Louisiana's Community and Technical College System Board of Supervisors approved the internal audit office's proposed fiscal 2024—25 audit plan on Aug. 14, after the internal audit director summarized the office's 2023—24 work and outlined priorities for the coming year.
The internal audit director told the committee the office completed five projects and produced eight reports in fiscal 2023—24 and emphasized that "without student financial aid our colleges wouldn't exist," identifying federal student-aid compliance and related consumer-information disclosures as a high-priority, systemwide issue that the audit team has already helped correct. He said the audits prompted colleges to update disclosures and implement fixes that reduced compliance risk.
The director outlined several specific focus areas in the 2024—25 plan: continued financial-aid control reviews at the college level and a system-level policy and procedure review; ongoing restricted-fees audits (technology and building-use fees) with an SLCC review scheduled for September; Americans with Disabilities Act compliance reviews to address identified "blind spots"; and a new disaster-recovery audit program that will examine campus continuity plans, vendor contract rates and cross-training for skeleton crews.
On internal controls the director said segregation-of-duties reviews will be performed on a college-by-college basis, noting smaller colleges often lack sufficient personnel and therefore need tailored mitigating controls. He also highlighted the monitoring relationship between college finance staff and affiliated foundations as an area that requires vigilance to avoid conflicts or control gaps.
The committee heard that some findings in purchase- and travel-card reviews represent inadequate documentation of allowable overages rather than suspected fraud, and the internal audit office plans to issue a memo to college CFOs reinforcing documentation practices to simplify compliance with state travel rules.
Staff recommended committee approval of the annual audit plan "as presented by the internal audit director to be effective upon approval through June 30, 2025." Supervisor Billy Mount moved the motion and Chair Hardy seconded. No objections were recorded in the transcript and the committee proceeded to other business.
Following the plan vote, a board member summarized recent legislative-auditor reports: River Parishes Community College's recent audit showed no reportable findings after staff turnover and cleanup, while Northshore Technical Community College had one reportable finding related to two workforce non-credit student account records that were not dropped in the student-account workflow; the college reported corrective actions.
The committee closed business and adjourned after thanking staff for the audit work. The internal audit office said it will begin prioritized reviews this fall and will adjust the plan if emergent issues (for example, fraud or misappropriation) appear and require immediate attention.
