May 30, 2023
We audited the Salt Lake County Larry H. Miller Sports Complex to evaluate business processes, financial transactions, and established controls to ensure the accurate and complete recording of cash receipts and receivables, the compliance with applicable policies and standards, and the adequate fiscal oversight to safeguard against fraud, waste, or abuse. I now present the results of this audit.
The audit at the Softball Complex unveiled substantial risk factors concerning concession inventory management and lack of adequate separation of duties, which could potentially lead to unrecorded sales, errors, or theft. Having the same employee in control of inventory purchases, approvals, and receipt exposes county funds to the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. The audit also discovered a lack of documentation for individual transactions and daily cash collection counts, the absence of customer receipts, and missing printouts of Point-of-Sale reports.
By implementing our recommendations for stronger policies, review processes, proper segregation of duties, cash collection tracking and reconciliation processes, Parks and Recreation can mitigate risks and provide assurance to management and those charged with governance, as well as county residents, that fiduciary responsibilities are performed.
While no evidence of wrongdoing was found, the audit revealed increased risk of undetected errors, potential fraud, waste, and abuse related to cash receipting, depositing, and concessions inventory. The findings could lead to reputational damage for Salt Lake County, Parks and Recreation, and Sports Office staff. We commend management for agreeing to all of our recommendations, assigning responsibility for implementing the corrections, and committing corrective actions within 60-90 days.
This audit is authorized pursuant to the State of Utah Code, Title 17, Counties, Chapter 19a, County Auditor Section 204, “Auditing Services.” We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
We appreciate the leaders and team members in Parks and Recreation who shared their time and knowledge with us during the audit. Please contact me at 385-468-7200 with any questions.
Chris Harding
