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Internal Audit Director Manu Patel discusses the audits the Internal Audit Department completed for fiscal year 2012. He said the University will try to consolidate issues from all data centers into a central data center.

Unified data center to make audits easier

news@dailylobo.com
@SvetlanaOzden

The University’s Internal Audit Department will attempt to centralize the University’s data center in an effort to improve the auditing system and keep track of issues more closely.

The Audit Committee meets monthly to assess various audits, such as department performance and financial audits, implemented by the Internal Audit Department.

At a meeting on Thursday, Internal Audit Director Manu Patel said the department believes an audit would be useful to address the various University data centers, which do not work together to provide a cohesive report of all issues within the University, such as complaints from members of the University who inform the department about problems they’ve experienced, such as fraud or misconduct. He said the audit would allow the department to move some or most of the University’s data centers to the central data center.

“We have a decentralized data center,” he said. “A better audit at this time would be to consolidate or identify the issues with the different data centers and see if we could move some of them or most of them into our central data center.”

Investigating complaints

Patel said that during fiscal year 2012, the audit department spent about 2,300 hours assessing five audits, including two audits that were a response to a complaint the department received. He said the department received 92 complaints last year.

Patel said that during 2011, the department had completed 20 percent of the audits they expected to complete and increased completion to 36 percent in 2012. This included a banner security audit, provost and general administration audit and an audit of the real estate department. He said the completion rate is low because the department is understaffed and the scope of the audits exceeded original audit plans.

According to the provost administration audit report, the provost has “taken considerable steps toward advancing the Academic Mission of the University of New Mexico … and increased transparency and mission-centric vision.” According to the report, the provost’s office has appropriately utilized funding to hire new faculty members, but should develop a process to better implement Special Administrative Components, which are compensation-based incentives for faculty members who take on duties outside their position at the University, and Special Teaching Components, which are compensation-based initiatives for taking on teaching assignments outside of their responsibilities.

According to the banner security audit report, University management should develop a formal security system to ensure that control of the system is effective and that information is protected.

According to the real estate department audit report, the department, in regards to property purchases, “consistently complies with University Business Policies and state requirements.” But the report states that standard operations are undocumented.

Patel said that for FY 13, the department will be fully staffed and expects to complete at least 75 percent of the audits.

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But Patel said the increase in staff requires an increase in the department’s budget. He said the department’s original proposed budget for FY 2013 is $759,000, which is about $110,000 short of the new proposed budget of $869,000, which includes costs for an increase in the number of staff members.

Patel said the new proposed budget includes $809,000 in salary costs and $60,000 in operating costs. He said the additional $110,000 will be funded by the department’s fund balance, which has accumulated because of vacancies in positions within the department.

Protecting student information and assessing department performance

Regent Gene Gallegos said the committee is also interested in examining security measures to ensure student information is protected. He said that, in light of a widespread threat of identity theft, the University should investigate how student information is protected at UNM to ensure that students are not exposed to the threat.

According to an Oct. 10 article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, computer hackers accessed confidential information of about 300,000 college students throughout Florida and stole the identity of at least 50 people. According to the article, the identity of the president of Northwest Florida State College was also stolen.

Gallegos said that although an audit for the arts and sciences department will assess the financial standing of the department, a more thorough audit may be a better alternative. He said audits should include assessing the department’s performance, including investigating professor workloads, in order to make the audit better-rounded.

“Regent (Bradley) Hosmer suggested that it be expanded somewhat to be not just a financial audit but a performance audit,” he said. “We’re wondering if the audit would take it a step further.”

Patel said the Internal Audit Department should assess department performance in order to ensure that all issues, such as departmental complaints, within every department are addressed.

“That’s going to help us improve our productivity,” he said. “We look to enhance the database so we can identify what we need to address.”

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