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MANATEE COUNTY CLERK OF THE
CIRCUIT COURT
INTERNAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT
PLANNING DEPARTMENT
MANUAL BILLING PROCESS
A U D I T R E P O R T
I. INTERNAL
AUDIT REPORT
A. Background; Purpose/Objectives
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B. Scope; Methodology; Irregularities,
Abuse, or Illegal Acts; Test
of Compliance
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.3
C.
Statement of
Internal Control Structure
..3 - 4
D.
Management
Team and Management Action Plan
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4
E. Management Summary..................................................................
....4
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F. Audit Report Authorization...........................................
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5
G. Areas of Improvement and Managements Action Plan...........
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MANATEE COUNTY CLERK OF THE
CIRCUIT COURT
INTERNAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT
PLANNING DEPARTMENT
MANUAL BILLING PROCESS
A U D I T R E P O R T
The Internal Audit Department conducted an audit of
the manual billing process under the Planning Department for the audit
period April 1, 1999 through May 31, 2000.
The audit was performed in accordance with Generally
Accepted Governmental Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller
General of the United States; and the Standards
for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, issued by the
Institute of Internal Auditors.
BACKGROUND:
The Planning Department provides the public, developers,
and other planning related concerns with the convenience of billing
for planning services. The Planning
Department is authorized by resolution to charge for work performed
by County employees and to be reimbursed for advertising expenses for
public notices. The Planning Department calculates billable
charges based upon employee hourly rates for administrative determinations,
charges a flat fee for address assignments, and bills reimbursement
of the actual cost for advertising public notices.
These charges are manually billed to the user, and are monitored
by the Planning Department for the timeliness of payments.
PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:
The audit purpose / objectives included, but were not
limited to, the following:
Ψ
Determine whether deposits
received and other fees paid for the billable charges are accurate,
adequately controlled, and deposited timely.
Ψ
Determine whether chargeable
amounts billed for the administrative determinations, address assignments,
and advertising are accurate, authorized, timely billed, and timely
collected.
Ψ
Determine whether the outstanding
balances are aged, collection efforts are performed, and uncollectable
balances are approved by the Board of County Commissioners.
SCOPE:
The scope of the audit included
examining evidence supporting that billings and collections of fees
and charges were in compliance with Board of County Commissioners' approved
resolutions for the period ending May 31, 2000.
Controls over cash handling procedures, write-offs of delinquent
billings, and the timeliness and accuracy of billing were also reviewed.
METHODOLOGY:
Internal control evaluations were accomplished by flow
charting the key operations of this specified area, discussions with
management and staff, observations, and analytical and substantive testing
of individual internal controls. Risk
analysis was used to establish priorities of audit objectives.
IRREGULARITIES,
ABUSE, OR ILLEGAL ACTS:
No indications of irregularities, abuse, or illegal
acts were discovered during the audit for the period ending May 31,
2000 in the audit of the Manual Billing Process.
TEST OF COMPLIANCE:
Internal Audit tested compliance certain laws and regulations,
obtained an understanding of internal controls and assessed control
risk. Tests performed were limited
to the specific areas included in the Purpose/Objective section of this
report and appeared to provide sufficient evidence to support an opinion
on compliance and internal controls for the areas tested.
Except as noted in our audit report, tested items were
in compliance with ordinances, resolutions, and other policies established
by the Planning Department relating to the Manual Billing process.
STATEMENT
ON INTERNAL CONTROL STRUCTURE:
In planning and performing the audit of the manual
billing process under the Planning Department for the period ending
May 31, 2000, the internal control structure was considered in order
to determine the auditing procedures for the purpose of this report. As a result, we noted in the audit report matters involving the
internal control structure and its operations that are considered reportable
conditions under standards established by the U.S. General Accounting
Office, Government Auditing Standards. Reportable conditions involve matters relating
to deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control structure,
that in our judgment, could adversely affect the organization's ability
to record, process, summarize and report on data consistent with managements
intentions.
Our consideration of the internal control structure
would not necessarily disclose all matters in the internal control structure
that might be reportable conditions, as defined above. In addition, because of the inherent limitations
in any internal control structure, deficiencies in the design or operation
of the internal control structure may exist and not be detected. We believe the conditions identified in our
audit report constitute reportable conditions as previously defined.
MANAGEMENT TEAM AND MANAGEMENT
ACTION PLAN:
A Management Action Plan will be used for each Area of Improvement reported. Management Action Plans are corrective actions with implementation dates developed in cooperation with the Departments Management Team and the Internal Audit Department. The Management Team includes the Director of the Planning Department and the Fiscal Management Analyst.
MANAGEMENT
SUMMARY:
The Planning Department is staffed
by dedicated individuals who pride themselves on customer service. Based
on the audit performed, it appears the Planning Department has been
adequately charging customers for administrative determinations, address
listings, and advertising costs and ensuring that these services are
meeting the needs of Manatee County customers.
The audit identified several areas where improvements can be
made; although reportable, these areas are considered relatively minor
in relation to the manual billing process of the Planning Department. Except as noted in this report, the Planning
Department substantially complies with the following:
1.
Manual bills
were calculated accurately in compliance with the fee Resolution 93-276;
2.
The employees'
chargeable time is billed on a timely basis in compliance with Resolution
93-276 for Administrative Determinations;
3.
Address
Listings, Advertising, and /or other charges are billed at the correct
Board of County Commissioners' and/or newspaper approved rates; and
4. All amounts entered
as "paid" in the manual log were deposited.
The manual billing process appears
to be functioning properly with the exception of the following areas
where we believe improvements can be made:
·
The Planning
Department manually bills for administrative determinations after services
are rendered. Stronger controls
are needed to ensure that all administrative determinations are billed.
In addition, procedures are needed to ensure the manual log is properly
updated upon the collection of payments.
The Management Team through its Management Action Plan will present
to the Board of County Commissioners an amendment to their fee schedule
to include a flat fee that will be collected in advance for administration
determinations. (See Area for Improvement #1 on page 6.)
·
Procedures
for the collection of outstanding account balances need to be formalized. Documentation could be improved to ensure the
collection efforts are performed prior to the writing-off of customer
balances. The Management Team
through its Management Action Plan will develop procedures to include
the review and documentation of all outstanding accounts every thirty
days. In addition, a reduction in the writing-off
of customer balances is expected with the implementation of a flat fee
that will be collected in advance. (See Area
for Improvement #2 on page 6.)
·
Resolution
93-276 requires applicants to pay the actual cost of advertisements
for public notices. The current
process requires a tedious, time-consuming recalculation of the actual
advertising invoice based on the number of lines of an applicant's advertisement.
The Management Team through its Management Action Plan will develop
a public hearing fee to be collected in advance to cover the cost for
standard advertisements. Additional procedures will be developed for
large and unusual advertisements. (See Area for Improvement #3 on page 7.)
·
The Planning Department's interpretation of Resolution 93-276
regarding rates charged for address assignments on individual residential
dwelling units needs to be properly applied to residential apartments.
In addition, no authority was found for the waiving of residential
address assignment fees of less than five units.
The Management Team through its Management Action Plan has provided
clarification to staff regarding the charging of residential apartments.
In addition, Resolution 93-276 will be amended to include the
waiving of the address assignment fees for less than five units. (See Area for Improvement #4 on page 7.)
We appreciate the efforts of the
Planning Departments management in timely addressing the issues raised
during the audit and aggressively seeking solutions to these matters. We believe through the implementation of the
Management Action Plans included in this report, controls will be strengthened,
improving accountability. We commend the Planning Department for providing
a valuable service to Manatee County residents.
AUDIT REPORT
AUTHORIZATION:
This audit report has been reviewed and authorized
by:
____________________________________ ___________________________________
Richard
J. Orienti, CIA, CFE
R. B. "Chips"
Shore
Director of Internal Audit Clerk of the
Circuit Court and Comptroller
AREA
FOR IMPROVEMENT #1
Subject: Billings and Collections of Administrative
Determinations
The Planning Department manually bills administrative determinations based
upon the actual time it takes to complete.
Administrative determinations are interpretations or clarifications
of permitting or zoning standards as applied to a particular property
or development proposal. Although
a deposit is collected, the administrative determination fee normally
exceeds the deposited amount. The
customer is subsequently invoiced the outstanding balance and the information
is entered into a manual log. Upon
notification of payment, the manual log is updated.
For the audit period April 1, 1999 through April 30, 2000, all of the
bills invoiced were accurately calculated in compliance with the Board
of County Commissioners' approved fee schedule.
It was noted, however, that 7 out of 97 or 7% of the administrative
determinations recorded were not billed. It was also noted that 30 instances
out of 97 or 33% of the administrative determinations were included
in the manual billing log as outstanding balances when the bills had
already been paid by the customers.
Management
Action Plan:
Ψ
Management is in the process
of developing a flat fee charge for all administrative determinations. This fee will be collected in advance, eliminating
the need for billing and updating of the manual log. Management intends to present this amendment
to their fee schedule for Board of County Commissioners' approval by
September 30, 2000.
AREA
FOR IMPROVEMENT #2
Subject:
Collection Efforts on Outstanding Balances
The Planning Department's Fiscal Section is
responsible for collection on all outstanding accounts. At this time, the Fiscal Section has not formalized
procedures to ensure adequate and timely collections of Planning Department
fees and charges. In addition,
documentation was not available to ensure that adequate collection efforts
were made on outstanding balances prior to write-offs of customer accounts.
Management
Action Plan:
Ψ
With the implementation of
a flat fee that will be collected in advance, Management anticipates
this will substantially reduce the number of outstanding accounts. In addition, Management will develop procedures
that will include the review and documentation of all outstanding accounts
every thirty days. Implementation is expected by September 30, 2000,
upon the Board of County Commissioners' approval of the amended fee
schedule.
AREA
FOR IMPROVEMENT #3
Subject: Billings and Collections of Advertising Costs
Resolution 93-276 requires applicants to pay the actual cost of advertisements
for public notices. Since this
rate is not determinable at time of application, the Planning Department's
Agenda Section manually bills the advertising costs after Manatee County
pays the actual bill.
For the audit period April 1, 1999 through April 30, 2000, all of the
bills invoiced were accurately calculated in compliance with the Board
of County Commissioners' approved fee schedule.
It was noted, however, that the current process of determining
an applicant's bill requires a tedious, time-consuming recalculation
of the actual advertising invoice based on the number of lines of an
applicant's advertisement. The
rate per line may differ depending on the number of public notices for
that day. Therefore the amount the applicant pays is not always a consistent
rate.
Management
Action Plan:
Ψ
Management is in the process
of developing a public hearing fee that will be a flat fee charge that
also includes the cost for standard advertisements.
Additional procedures will be developed for large and unusual
advertisements. All public hearing fees that include standard advertisements
will be collected in advance, reducing the need for subsequent billings. Management anticipates presenting to the Board
of County Commissioners this fee schedule amendment for approval by
September 30, 2000.
AREA
FOR IMPROVEMENT #4
Subject:
Address Listing Assignments
The Planning Department's Fee
Schedule, Resolution 93-276, states that address assignments are to
be charged at $12 per building unit for non-residential and $2 for individual
dwelling unit for residential.
For the thirteen-month period
ending April 30, 2000, it was noted that residential apartments were
charged a $12 rate instead of the number of individual dwellings at
the $2 per unit rate. In addition,
the Address Section is waiving fees for residential address assignments
of less than five units, which is not in compliance with the fee resolution. Management does not believe it is cost beneficial
to process the payment for less than five units.
AREA
FOR IMPROVEMENT #4
...
Continued
Management
Action Plan:
Ψ
Management has provided clarification
to the Address Section personnel to ensure the consistent application
of Resolution 93-276 regarding the appropriate rates to be charged.
This became effective August 25, 2000.
Ψ
Management is in the process
of amending their rate schedule to allow for the waiving of residential
address assignment fees of less than five units. Management intends
to present this amendment to their fee schedule for Board of County
Commissioners' approval by September 30, 2000.
