Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Showing 1-4 of 23 pages in this text.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Description

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses internal control weaknesses in the Department of Education's payment process. GAO identified internal control weaknesses that sharply increase Education's vulnerability to improper payments. GAO classified the weaknesses into the following four broad categories: (1) poor segregation of duties, (2) lack of supervisory review, (3) inadequate audit trails, and (4) inadequate computer systems' application controls. GAO found that some individuals at Education can control the entire payment process for some transactions. As a result, individuals could be using agency funds for personal expenses. GAO also found ... continued below

Creation Information

United States. General Accounting Office. April 3, 2001.

Context

This text is part of the collection entitled: Government Accountability Office Reports and was provided by UNT Libraries Government Documents Department to Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 58 times . More information about this text can be viewed below.

Who

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this text or its content.

Author

Publisher

Provided By

UNT Libraries Government Documents Department

Serving as both a federal and a state depository library, the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department maintains millions of items in a variety of formats. The department is a member of the FDLP Content Partnerships Program and an Affiliated Archive of the National Archives.

About | Browse this Partner

Contact Us

Corrections Questions

What

Descriptive information to help identify this text. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Description

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses internal control weaknesses in the Department of Education's payment process. GAO identified internal control weaknesses that sharply increase Education's vulnerability to improper payments. GAO classified the weaknesses into the following four broad categories: (1) poor segregation of duties, (2) lack of supervisory review, (3) inadequate audit trails, and (4) inadequate computer systems' application controls. GAO found that some individuals at Education can control the entire payment process for some transactions. As a result, individuals could be using agency funds for personal expenses. GAO also found that Education has serious deficiencies in its process for reviewing and approving purchases made with government credit cards. During fiscal year 2000, Education employees made more than $8 million in purchases using their government purchase cards. Without proper review and approval of these expenditures, improper use of the government charge cards may go undetected. Regarding audit trails, Education lacks adequate control over changes made to sensitive information for certain types of payments, including contracting and third party drafts. Finally, weaknesses in Education's information systems controls increases the risk of unauthorized access or disruption in services and make Education's sensitive grant and loan data vulnerable to inadvertent or deliberate misuse."

Language

Item Type

Identifier

Unique identifying numbers for this text in the Digital Library or other systems.

Collections

This text is part of the following collection of related materials.

Government Accountability Office Reports

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for the U.S. Congress investigating how the federal government spends taxpayers' money. Its goal is to increase accountability and improve the performance of the federal government. The Government Accountability Office Reports Collection consists of over 13,000 documents on a variety of topics ranging from fiscal issues to international affairs.

About | Browse this Collection

What responsibilities do I have when using this text?

Digital Files

When

Dates and time periods associated with this text.

Creation Date

  • April 3, 2001

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • June 10, 2014, 6:42 a.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this text last used?

Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 3
Total Uses: 58
More Statistics

Where

Geographical information about where this text originated or about its content.

Place Name

Publication Place

Map Information

  • map marker Automatically generated Place Name coordinates.
  • map marker Automatically generated Publication Place coordinates.
  • Repositioning map may be required for optimal printing.

Mapped Locations

Interact With This Text

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Start Reading

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments'.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

International Image Interoperability Framework

IIF Logo

We support the IIIF Presentation API

United States. General Accounting Office. Financial Management: Internal Control Weaknesses Leave Department of Education Vulnerable to Improper Payments, text, April 3, 2001; Washington D.C.. (digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc289533/: accessed September 18, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.