Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Auditor

TO:	Members of the City Commission
FROM:	Michael Eglinski, City Auditor
CC:	David L. Corliss, City Manager Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Jonathan Douglas, Assistant to the City Manager
Date:	March 19, 2009
RE:	Audit Recommendation Follow-Up March 2009

Following-up on performance audit recommendations provides the City Commission with information on management’s efforts to implement recommendations.  Management provided information on seven recommendations and has generally implemented or made progress on the recommendations.  This report covers recommendations from three performance audits: Ethics Questions for Employee Survey, Financial Indicators, and Pavement Condition Measures.  City Code requires follow-up reporting.  See the appendix for more detailed information on implementation of each recommendation.

Management has generally implemented or made progress on implementing audit recommendations.

As appropriate, the City Commission can direct the auditor to “close” recommendations.  Closed recommendations will not be included in future follow-up.

Status	Number of recommendations	Recommendations
Implemented	3	The Director of Administrative Services should incorporate questions about the ethical environment in the employee survey. The City Manager should document the method for allocating general overhead to the enterprise operations and the basis for interfund transfers related to that overhead. The City Manager should provide the City Commission with regular reports showing where the city stands in relation to the measures in the debt issuance guidelines.
Not implemented	0	None
In progress	3	The City Manager should develop a method to enforce the ordinance requirement for an excavation permit or consider revising the city’s processes for managing the right-of-way. The Director of Information Systems should develop a policy on backing up data. The Director of Public Works should compile documentation of the database to help maintain and use the information in the future.
Undetermined	1	The Director of Public Works should identify the resources needed to maintain the pavement management information and should request those resources in future budget submittals.

Action Item

Direct the City Auditor to “close” audit recommendations A, B, and C, if appropriate.  Closed recommendations will not be included in future follow-up.

Scope, method and objectives

Following-up on the status of audit recommendations provides the City Commission with information about management’s efforts to implement audit recommendations.  No later than 6-months after issuing an audit, the City Code requires the City Auditor to follow-up to determine that corrective action was taken and is achieving the desired results.  City Code requires that the auditor inform the City Manager and the City Commission of the results of the follow-up.

The City Auditor asked management to provide updates on the status of audit recommendations for reports released more than 120 days ago.  This report covers recommendations from three performance audits: Ethics Questions for Employee Survey, Financial Indicators, and Pavement Condition Measures.

The auditor compiled the information but did not audit the information provided by management.  For each recommendation, the auditor made a judgment about the status of the recommendation.

Status	Indicator
Implemented	Management describes steps taken to implement the recommendation.
Not implemented	Management asserts that the recommendation will not be implemented or has not taken steps to implement the recommendations.
In progress	Management describes progress toward implementing the recommendation.
Undetermined	Status cannot be determined, for example, because the recommendation requires future actions.

The City Auditor, with the City Commissions’ direction, will “close” a recommendation and exclude it from future follow-up reports.   Open recommendations will be included in future follow-up reports.

The follow-up information was not conducted as a performance audit under Government Auditing Standards. 

The City Auditor shared a draft of this report with the City Manager.

Appendix: Recommendation Status Summary

The recommendation status report lists each recommendation, managements assertions about steps taken to implement each recommendation, and the auditor’s determination of the status of each recommendation.