HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - Audit Committee - Meeting Date: 6/1/2022QZ1
Glendale
A R I Z O N A
MINUTES
AUDIT COMMITTEE
CITY HALL, CONFERENCE ROOM 133
5850 W. GLENDALE AVE.
GLENDALE, ARIZONA 85301
JUNE 1, 2022
2:00 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER
Vice Mayor Aldama (Chairperson), called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: Jamie Aldama, Vice Mayor
Ian Hugh, Councilmember
Raymond Malnar, Councilmember
Irene Avalos, Member
Kevin Phelps, City Manager
Lisette Camacho, Budget and Finance Director
Absent: Rusty Simmons, Member
Also Present: Khala Stanfield, Department of Organizational Performance Director
Mike Kingery, Independent Internal Audit Program Manager
James Gruber, Chief Deputy City Attorney
Jim Brown, Director, Human Resources & Risk Management
Dianne Shoemake, Risk Manager, Risk Management
Lorena Sanchez Zumph, HR Program Manager, Risk Management
Hillary Zagara, Risk Management Specialist, Risk Management
John Murphey, Administrator — Budget & CIP, Engineering Services
Storm Johnson, BI Assistant, Department of Organizational Performance
Chelsea Ritchie, Consulting Manager, Moss Adams (Guest)
Annie Rose Favreau, Manager, Moss Adams (Guest)
Stphen Bacchetti, Partner, Construction Advisory, Moss Adams (Guest)
Cameron Lagrone, Government Audit Manager, Moss Adams (Guest)
Maria Stroth, Manager — Strategy & Operations, Moss Adams (Guest)
3. CITIZEN COMMENTS
No members of the public were present. No comments.
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
A motion was made by Councilmember Ian Hugh, Member Irene Avalos seconded the
approval of the Minutes of the March 3, 2022, meeting as written.
AYE: Vice Mayor Jamie Aldama
Councilmember Ian Hugh
Councilmember Raymond Malnar
Member Irene Avalos
Other: Member Rusty Simmons (ABSENT)
5. MOTION TO CALL FOR AND ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION
Councilmember Hugh motioned to call for and enter into Executive Session at 2:07 p.m.
Member Avalos made the second. Motion carried unanimously.
6. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Review and discuss draft audit reports pursuant to Glendale City Code
§2-54b and §2-58c (A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A)(2)). Session was held.
7. MOTION TO ADJOURN EXECUTIVE SESSION AND RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION
Councilmember Hugh motioned to adjourn Executive Session at 2:40 p.m. Member
Avalos made the second. Motion carried unanimously and Open Session was
reconvened.
8. CONSIDERATION/POSSIBLE VOTE ON EXECUTIVE SESSION ITEMS
Chairperson Aldama announced that the committee would review and consider vote to
approve the following two audit reports: Workers' Compensation Process Review and
Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Evaluation. Councilmember Malnar motioned to
approve both audit reports, with an amended management response to the fourth finding
of the CIP Audit (for response clarification). Member Avalos made the second. Motion
carried unanimously.
9 UPDATE ON FY22 & FY23 AUDIT PLANS
Mr. Kingery provided the status of the audits scheduled on the FY22 audit plan. Both the
Purchasing Card (p -card) audit and the Telecommuting Policy and Compliance audit are
in the fieldwork phase and will be presented at the next Audit Committee meeting. Moss
Adams has three audits currently in the fieldwork or planning phase: City Transit
Program; Housing Management & Maintenance; and, Fleet Management Program, which
will also be presented at the next meeting. Mr. Kingery mentioned that the remaining
audit on the FY22 plan (Contract Compliance and Performance) will be rolled into the
full-scale Procurement audit in FY23, expanding the scope of that engagement.
For the contracted audits on the FY23 audit plan that was approved by City Council on
April 26 (Mr. Kingery mistakenly stated the May 10 meeting during his report), Mr.
Kingery gave a brief recap of the engagements on the plan, including the role that Robotic
Process Automation (RPA) and analytics might play. He noted that the supplemental
budget request that was approved by Council will allow us to work with our auditing
software vendor to determine what automation/analytics options exist, and how they
could best be utilized in either a p -card and/or payroll audit.
Chairperson Aldama asked how long staff had been working on the current (FY22) p -card
audit. Mr. Kingery explained that this "traditional" p -card audit is an extremely labor
intensive, manual process to look up each transaction and its supporting documentation
individually. It is a large sample of monthly statements and transactions, cutting across
all departments throughout the City. Chairperson Aldama also asked if the cardholders
and/or their administrators are reconciling their transactions each month. Mr. Kingery
explained the process and how it involves at least one person other than the cardholder
to review and approve each statement and its transactions.
Chairperson Aldama acknowledged that the process is cumbersome and asked
specifically what the audit is trying to find. Mr. Kingery explained that each item is tested
for compliance with city policy and meeting the documentation requirements.
Chairperson Aldama asked what the annual spend is for p -cards; Mr. Kingery was
uncertain and said he would check and get back to everyone. Chairperson Aldama asked
how the potential RPA/analytics could help the audit process. Mr. Kingery replied that
until he saw the capabilities offered by our vendor, there was no way to know. The hope
is that it could at least track items like dates, limits, and totals, but likely would not be able
to analyze the pdf in the system supporting each transaction.
Chairperson Aldama asked what was needed to get the RPA functionality and when staff
expects the current p -card review to be completed. Mr. Kingery said the current audit
should be wrapped up in July and that he would need to work with our vendor and our IT
department to determine which analytics could work with our financial system and
provide the best return on our investment (which might be payroll or some other
analytics, not necessarily related to p -cards). Chairperson Aldama requested an update
at the next Audit Committee meeting.
Member Avalos asked that since staff is already deep into the current p -card audit, if it
.would make more sense to see if payroll analytics could be utilized when a relevant audit
for that process begins. Mr. Kingery replied that he was leaning that way. Ms. Avalos
asked if the audit staff was just one person and Mr. Kingery confirmed that it was just
him. Ms. Avalos suggested that if there was an audit intern (or similar), that they could
do a lot of the tedious, manual testing such as that of the p -card audit and Mr. Kingery
could oversee the project and review the fieldwork. Mr. Kingery replied that the
Department of Organizational Performance just hired a new Business Intelligence
Assistant (intern) that started yesterday and introduced him to the committee. The goal
is for the new intern to assist with data related to audits as well as Organizational
Performance.
Mr. Kingery noted that all assistance is welcome, and that our new contract with our
p -card provider bank may also allow us to use their upgraded system to capture more
data than we currently obtain. Chairperson Aldama stated that since p -cards are low risk
but cut across the City and touch every department's spend, that we owe it to ourselves
to refine the process and find/report any errors. Ms. Stanfield mentioned that we have a
relationship with Arizona State University's data analytics group that might be able to
assist us as well.
Mr. Kingery mentioned that staff invited our five qualified vendors (selected from RSOQ
20-18 issued in November of 2019) to submit proposals and quotes for the audits on the
FY23 audit plan that they were interested in performing. The deadline for their
responses is June 8, 2022, with evaluation and selection to occur by June 30. There
were no additional questions or comments.
10. STATUS UPDATE OF AUDIT COMMITTEE GOALS
Mr. Kingery reviewed the goals that were approved by the Audit Committee during the
September 8, 2021 meeting. The goals are: 1) developing a work plan for
implementation of an Independent Internal Audit Program (IIAP) quality assurance and
improvement program in preparation for a peer review in FY24, and 2) monitoring
remediation of outstanding recommendations from prior audits to ensure they are fully
implemented by June 30, 2022.
Mr. Kingery noted that the number of findings still outstanding had gone from the original
count of 80+ to just a handful as of today. Most are awaiting finalization of policy updates
that have a deadline of June 30, 2022, along with a few findings that cannot be closed
out until new systems are implemented in FY23. In addition, there are some findings that
have been closed because they will be addressed again with audits already scheduled
on the approved FY23 audit plan.
For the other goal, Mr. Kingery mentioned that he recently attended the annual
conference of the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA). The conference
included a full-day workshop on the peer review process, and Mr. Kingery is now
qualified to be on a peer review team for a fellow local government organization. This will
allow staff to see how the entire process works prior to the peer review of I IAP in FY24.
The biggest takeaway from the conference is how much work staff will need to do prior to
FY24 so that all the required policies, procedures, and other documentation items are in
place. Staff noted that between preparing for peer review, possible RPA/analytics
implementation, performing audits, and coordinating audits with our contracted vendors,
FY23 will be an extremely busy year.
Ms. Avalos asked if staff was currently scheduled to be on a peer review team. Mr.
Kingery replied that he is in the pool of reviewers and the one opportunity offered thus far
had a scheduling conflict. However, there should be many opportunities in FY23, and
there is no cost to the City. The obligation to pay for the peer reviewers' expenses lies
with the organization under review, so those costs will be factored into IIAP's FY24
budget request. Mr. Kingery indicated that updates to the status of both goals will be
provided at the next Audit Committee meeting. There was no further discussion on this
agenda item.
11. COMMITTEE COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Ms. Avalos commended both the auditors and the auditees for completing two of the
most tedious audits conducted since she began serving on the committee. She
mentioned that the auditors did a good job of documenting the processes and results and
that City staff does a tremendous job handling the volumes they do with such limited
staffing. There were no other comments or questions.
12. NEXT MEETING
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Audit Committee will be held on September
8, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. All committee members agreed on that date/time.
13. ADJOURNMENT
Chairperson Aldama asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Councilmember Hugh
motioned to adjourn at 3:00 p.m. Member Avalos made the second. Motion carried
unanimously.
The Audit Committee meeting minutes of June 1, 2022, were submitted and
approved this 15 h day of September, 2022.
Michael Kingery
Independent Interna dit Program Manager
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