DPA
MEETING NOTES
August 2004
TOPICS
SEPTEMBER 2004 MEETING
OCTOBER 2004 MEETING
YEAR END PROPERTY ISSUES
YEAR END AUDIT UPDATE
PROPERTY ADMINISTRATOR SEARCH UPDATE
DISPOSAL CONTROLS
SEPTEMBER 2004 MEETING – The September 2004 meeting will be Thursday, the 30th, 9:30-11:00 A.M. at CG4-2020.
OCTOBER 2004 MEETING – The October 2004 meeting will be Thursday, the 28th, 9:30-11:00 A.M. at ML-Chapman Rm. (Final meeting of the calendar year.)
YEAR END PROPERTY ISSUES – Property elements of UCAR financial statements as well as sponsor reports are based on property records. Therefore, it is important that those records be accurate and current. Consequently, DPAs should review their records for the following issues early in September.
- Disposals – Be sure that all assets pulled from service (no longer being used in the division) are processed as disposals before 09/30/04.
- Depreciation – Divisions should review depreciation entries that impact their division early in September. That way, questions can be addressed well before the final depreciation calculation and closeout.
- Constructed Assets – Constructed assets that have been placed in service in the division need to be placed in service in the FADB and begin depreciation in this fiscal year. Janet will be contacting DPAs with constructed assets in process to get confirmation, either that the asset is complete and can be placed in service or that the target completion date should be extended into the next fiscal year.
Tagging – Be sure tags are placed on new assets promptly. Auditors will be selecting some assets for physical inspection and it is important that everything be appropriately tagged.
YEAR END AUDIT UPDATE – KPMG auditors selected 30 disposal samples and 30 asset addition samples. Chris and I spent a significant portion of this week pulling back up documentation for these selections for the auditors to review. At this point, we do not know how many physical assets the auditors will need to access or when that will occur. It appears that decision will be made based on their testing of property procedures and controls. We will let everyone know as soon as we have any word about when this will take place and what the process will look like.
For those who didn’t know, UCAR has a new audit firm, KPMG, performing the annual audit this year. Their approach is a little different than D&T’s was, although the end goals are the same. That is why we are uncertain just how they will proceed with the various selections and tests.
PROPERTY ADMINISTRATOR SEARCH UPDATE – Melissa Miller, Director of UCAR Budget and Finance, will be posting the Property Administrator job on the UCAR job site in the next few days. We will e-mail dpaalias@ucar.edu to let you know when it is there in case you want to take a look and/or make someone you know aware of it.
There was a good response to Melissa’s request for DPAs to participate on the interview committee. Thanks. Melissa will keep everyone informed of the process as it moves along. If you wish to offer input, whether or not you are on the interview committee, feel free to e-mail Melissa at Melissa@ucar.edu. She recognizes that this is an important hire to DPAs and welcomes your ideas. Melissa will also be letting you all know who is on the interview committee so you can communicate with them, if you wish.
DISPOSAL CONTROLS – UCAR procedures have controls attached to them as a mechanism to ensure that each procedure is performed correctly. This is a standard business practice and something carefully scrutinized by the auditors. Our control for ensuring that Disposal entries are being entered correctly and in a timely fashion has been DPA confirmation after the entry is done, as referenced in the “DISPOSAL” e-mails issued after each batch of disposals is processed. This allows a second party, the DPA, to check the entry to be sure it was done and done correctly. The audit uncovered a flaw with this control. We had a Disposal entry that was incorrect and apparently the DPA did not verify it so the error was not caught. Therefore, we have put another layer of control in place that will help us avoid such undetected errors in the future. Of course, the division inventory would uncover such an error but if the inventory does not happen to occur in the same fiscal year, and after the error, we would have a mistake on the year end reports.
This is raised as an example of why we have the various procedures in place for verifying active and disposed assets. UCAR’s procedures and controls help to ensure that our active asset lists are accurate and, consequently, that the reports based on those lists are correct.
Contact
the Property Office at anytime with questions or for assistance.
We're here to help you manage your division's property.
Janet Campbell, ext 8858, janetc@ucar.edu;
Chris Knoetgen, ext 8573, knoetgen@ucar.edu
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