HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-03-21 Policy & Services Committee Agenda PacketPolicy and Services Committee
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Special Meeting
Community Meeting Room 6:00 PM
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PUBLIC COMMENT
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Call to Order
Oral Communications
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Action Items
1. Recommendation That Policy and Services Committee Recommends the
City Council Accept the Status Updates of the Audits for the Citywide
Cash Handling and Travel Expense, Audit of Cable Franchise and Public,
Education and Government (PEG) Fees and the Continuous Monitoring:
Payments Audit
Future Meetings and Agendas
Adjournment
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City of Palo Alto (ID # 8992)
Policy and Services Committee Staff Report
Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 3/21/2018
City of Palo Alto Page 1
Summary Title: Status Update of Audit Recommendations for Cable, Cash
Handling and Continous Monitoring Audits
Title: Recommendation that Policy and Services Committee Recommends the
City Council Accept the Status Updates of the Audits for the Citywide Cash
Handling and Travel Expense, Audit of Cable Franchise and Public, Education
and Government (PEG) Fees and the Continuous Monitoring: Payments Audit
From: City Manager
Lead Department: Administrative Services
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Policy and Services Committee recommend that the City Council
accept the attached Status of Audit Recommendations for the Audit of Cable Franchise and
Public, Education, and Government (PEG) Fees, the Audit of Citywide Cash Handling and Travel
Expense and the Continuous Monitoring Payments Audit
Background
The City Auditor’s Office previously issued an audit regarding cable television franchise fees and
the use of related PEG fee revenue, an audit on cash handling and an audit on monitoring of
payments.
Staff from the City Manager’s Office, the Administrative Services Department and the
Information Technology Department have jointly worked on the cable franchise and PEG fees
audit. Three of the recommendations have been completed as shown in Attachment A. For
recommendation 2.3 staff worked with AT&T to setup separate billing codes. Work is in
progress on the remaining recommendations related to the use of PEG fee revenue, a
settlement with Comcast and the ongoing management of cable functions at the City. Staff has
worked closely with the Media Center on the potential option to use PEG revenue to acquire
the Media Center building consistent with federal requirements. Staff expects to schedule a
briefing with the City Council on this option in 2018.
For the cash handling audit recommendation 6 staff is planning to incorporate the value of
taxable meals on employee W2s in 2018. An approach to this recommendation has taken extra
time to consider due to the lack of centralized, comprehensive data on taxable meals provided
City of Palo Alto Page 2
in the City and the complexity of capturing and presenting the values on employee pay checks.
A new form is being reviewed that will capture taxable meal charges.
For the continuous monitoring audit, staff will incorporate recommendations into the new
enterprise resource planning system, which is currently being evaluated. Status on the
remaining recommendations is detailed in Attachment C.
Attachments:
Attachment A: Cable Audit Status Report
Attachment B: Cash Handling Audit Status Report
Attachment C: Payments Audit Status Report
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 1
The City Manager has agreed to take the following actions in response to the audit recommendations in this report. The City Manager will report
progress on implementation six months after the Council accepts the audit report, and every six months thereafter until all recommendations have been
implemented.
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
Finding 1: The Media Center did not restrict its use of $340,000 of annual PEG fees to capital expenditures as required by the federal Cable Act.
We recommend that the City Manager’s Office:
1.1 Consult with ASD, IT, the City
Attorney’s Office, and Cable Joint
Powers members to assess the need
to continue collecting PEG fees and
adjust the fee based on a
demonstrated need for future capital
expenses related to PEG access
facilities or discontinue collecting the
fee.
a. If it is determined that the PEG fee
should be adjusted or
discontinued, submit a staff report
to the City Council with a
recommendation to amend the
Municipal Code to reflect the
revised fee or to eliminate the
requirement and recommend to
the other Cable Joint Powers
members that they do the same.
b. If it is determined that the PEG fee
should continue to be collected:
Amend the agreement with
the Media Center to remove
the requirement for the City to
remit all PEG fees collected to
the Media Center.
City Manager’s
Office, ASD, IT,
City Attorney’s
Office
Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 2017
Action Plan:
Staff agrees that it should confirm the
ongoing need for the PEG fee and
ensure it is set at a level that is
consistent with future capital needs.
Staff will work with the City Attorney’s
Office to develop a “capital cost”
definition that eliminates any cost
categories that could be construed as
operating costs and will restrict the use
of PEG fees to expenditures that meet
this definition. Staff will also develop
and adopt procedures that define the
PEG fee distribution and reporting
process.
Staff will propose the appropriate
revisions to the Municipal Code if it is
determined that the PEG fee should be
modified in any way.
In Progress March 2018 Management Update:
Staff is working with the Cable Joint Powers and
the Media Center to confirm the ongoing need for
PEG fees. It is anticipated that PEG fee revenue
will continue to be needed for appropriate capital
equipment and building expenses. Effective 2016,
PEG fees have been placed in a restricted account
only to be used for capital expenditures that meet
Federal Cable Act requirements. Procedures that
define capital assets, and the PEG fee distribution
and reporting process are under development.
Expected Completion Date: 3QTR 2018
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 2
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
Coordinate with ASD, the City
Attorney’s Office, and the
Cable Joint Powers to develop
and implement criteria for the
use of PEG fees to ensure
compliance with the federal
Cable Act, and that the fees
are set at a level appropriate
for anticipated and necessary
capital expenses.
Place the PEG fees in a
restricted account and
distribute them based on City-
approved capital expenditures
that meet federal Cable Act
requirements.
Require that semi-annual
documentation of
expenditures be provided and
adopt procedures to review
the documentation to ensure
that PEG fees are spent only as
allowed by the federal Cable
Act and take immediate
corrective action as necessary.
1.2 Consult with ASD, IT, the City
Attorney’s Office, and the Cable Joint
Powers on whether to allocate a
portion of the unrestricted franchise
fees or other funds, instead of
restricted-use PEG fees, to subsidize
the Media Center’s operations or to
discontinue subsidizing the Media
City Manager’s
Office, ASD, IT,
City Attorney’s
Office
Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 2017
Action Plan:
Staff will consult with the Cable Joint
Powers to determine if there is any
interest in subsidizing the Media
Center’s operations. Staff will propose
In Progress March 2018 Management Update:
The City is exploring with the Media Center a
proposal for the use of PEG fees to purchase the
Media Center’s facility. Under this option, the JPA
would use PEG fees for capital, enabling the Media
Center to cover operational expenses. (Staff will
report back to Council on the merits of this option
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 3
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
Center’s operations. Based on the
resulting recommendation, the City
Manager’s Office should make
recommendations to the Council
regarding appropriate future funding,
if any, for the Media Center.
recommendations to the City Council if
needed.
in the spring/summer 2018 timeframe.) The Cable
Joint Powers favors this option over using
franchise fees or other funds to subsidize the
Media Center’s operations.
Expected Completion Date: 4QTR 2018
Finding 2: Comcast and AT&T did not remit the full amount of franchise and PEG fees due.
We recommend that the City Manager’s Office, in coordination with ASD, IT, and the City Attorney’s Office:
2.1 Send a letter to AT&T and Comcast
describing the results of the audit and
demanding payment of the
underpaid franchise and PEG fees
shown in Exhibit 4, plus interest
calculated in accordance with DIVCA
requirements.
City Manager,
ASD, IT, City
Attorney’s
Office
Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 4Q 2016
Action Plan:
Staff will draft a letter to Comcast/AT&T
demanding payment of the underpaid
franchise and PEG fees, plus interest
(and audit costs in the case of AT&T).
Staff will work with Comcast/AT&T to
correct their address databases so that
future payments are properly remitted
and will develop criteria to assess the
accuracy of future payments. Staff will
work with San Mateo and Santa Clara
Counties to adjust their PEG fee rates as
needed.
In Progress March 2018 Management Update: In Progress
Staff issued letters to Comcast/AT&T demanding
payment of the underpaid franchise and PEG fees,
plus interest. Staff has reached a global settlement
with AT&T in the amount of $75,647. Staff
continues to negotiate the terms of a global
settlement with Comcast.
Expected Completion Date: 2QTR 2018
2.2 Include in AT&T’s letter a demand for
payment of the audit costs that are
attributable to AT&T.
Completed March 2018 Management Update:
Staff has reached a global settlement of all audit
issues with AT&T.
2.3 Work with Comcast and AT&T to
develop methods to ensure:
Their address databases
Completed March 2018 Management Update:
Staff worked with AT&T to establish separate
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 4
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
accurately reflect all potential
service addresses within the Cable
Joint Powers geographic areas.
They have a separate billing code
for each member jurisdiction and
accurately report and remit
payments to the City of Palo Alto
based on those billing codes.
billing codes for each member jurisdiction so that
future payments are properly remitted. Comcast
has implemented changes to its address database
to accurately reflect the Cable Joint Powers service
area.
2.4 Develop criteria for assessing the
accuracy of future Comcast and AT&T
franchise and PEG fee payments on
an ongoing basis and:
Communicate the criteria to
Comcast and AT&T and that it will
be used to review the accuracy of
future payments.
Require Comcast and AT&T to
report the breakdown of their
fees in more detail, including
identifying what is and is not
included in the gross revenues
used to calculate the fees and the
reason for any exclusions.
Review the franchise and PEG fee
payments to ensure that they
were calculated on all revenues
that are subject to franchise and
PEG fees and promptly follow up
with Comcast and AT&T regarding
any discrepancies.
In Progress March 2018 Management Update:
After staff reaches a settlement with Comcast,
(determining what is and what is not included in
gross revenues used to calculate franchise fees), it
will finalize criteria and establish a more detailed
reporting format to assess the accuracy of future
franchise and PEG fee payments.
Expected Completion Date: 3QTR 2018
2.5 Request that San Mateo and Santa
Clara Counties revise their municipal
Completed March 2018 Management Update:
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 5
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
codes to reflect only a single adopted
rate to accommodate the cable
companies’ billing system capabilities,
if the PEG fee continues to be
collected (see Recommendation 1.1).
Staff requested that the counties consider
adopting a single PEG fee rate. San Mateo was not
able to comply since it has a local franchise (with a
PEG fee rate of 55 cents per subscriber) that does
not expire until 2021. Santa Clara determined this
was not is feasible. Staff was able to work with
AT&T to modify its billing system to handle
multiple rates (the Comcast system already
handles multiple rates).
Finding 3: Roles and responsibilities for managing the City’s cable communications program are not clearly defined or assigned.
We recommend that the City Clerk and City Manager’s Office:
3.1. Confer and develop a
recommendation for the City Council
to assign responsibility for the City’s
cable communications program and
require the assigned department to
provide appropriate program
oversight to ensure that:
a. The City’s cable communications
program objectives are aligned
with the City’s goals and
objectives.
b. The assigned department
develops performance measures
to demonstrate that the program
is effective and is meeting the
City’s goals and objectives.
c. There is effective oversight and
management of the cable
coordinator’s contract and
City Manager’s
Office, City
Clerk
Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 4Q 2016
Action Plan:
Staff will determine where to assign
responsibility for the City’s cable
communications program/activities and
propose the appropriate revisions to the
Municipal Code. The responsible
department will establish performance
measures to ensure proper program
administration and oversight.
In Progress March 2018 Management Update:
Staff is evaluating where to assign responsibility
for the City’s cable communications
program/activities and will propose the
appropriate revisions to the Municipal Code.
Expected Completion Date: 4QTR 2018
Attachment A
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CABLE FRANCHISE AND PEG FEE AUDIT – ISSUED 6/14/16
PAGE 6
Recommendation
Responsible
Department(s) Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
activities.
3.2. Submit a draft ordinance to the Palo
Alto City Council recommending
revisions to the Palo Alto Municipal
Code based on the revised
assignment of roles and
responsibilities.
Not Started April 2017 Management Update:
Expected Completion Date: 4QTR 2018
Attachment B
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CITYWIDE CASH HANDLING AND TRAVEL EXPENSE – ISSUED 9/15/10
PAGE 1
The City Manager has agreed to take the following actions in response to the audit recommendations in this report. The City Manager will report
progress on implementation six months after the Council accepts the audit report, and every six months thereafter until all recommendations have been
implemented.
Recommendation
Responsible
Department Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
Finding 1: Stronger controls are needed for cash handling
Finding 2: Increased oversight and coordination can improve the employee travel expense process.
6. ASD should review the nighttime
meeting reimbursement policy. If the City
decides to maintain this practice, ASD
should report the amounts as income on
employee Form W-2s to conform to
Internal Revenue Service requirements.
In addition, ASD should review other
types of meal expense to ensure any
reportable amounts are included on
employee Form W-2s.
Auditor’s Note: The City Auditor and
Administrative Services Department staff
met to discuss using federal per diem
rates, which is a best practice, instead of
requiring employees to provide meal
receipts when traveling.
Administrative
Services
Department
Target Date Not Provided
ASD has determined that handling
such reimbursements through payroll
would involve significant staff time.
Staff is developing a process that will
comply with the IRS regulation in the
most economical and efficient
fashion. Any change in
reimbursements would be subject to
meet-and-confer depending on the
labor group.
In Process March 2018 Management Update:
Staff has developed a form and draft policy for
tracking meal expenses on employee W2s. Staff is
reviewing the form and policy with departments.
The new expected due date for capturing meals
expenses on W2s is 12/31/2018.
April 2017 Management Update:
Staff is planning to include taxable meals on
employee W2s by the end of 2017.
Expected Completion Date12/31/2017
October 2015 Management Update: ASD, working
with the City Auditor and the City Manager’s Office,
and has completed the first phase changes to the
meal reimbursement policy. Staff changed the
reimbursement for travel meals to the IRS per diem
limits, which do not require reporting on an
employee’s W2.
June 2014 Management Update: ASD staff is
reviewing process changes coupled with search and
reporting capabilities in the purchase card system
that could make it feasible for the Accounts Payable
and Payroll processes to sync up so that all taxable
meal reimbursements would be included on
Attachment B
STATUS OF AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
CITYWIDE CASH HANDLING AND TRAVEL EXPENSE – ISSUED 9/15/10
PAGE 2
Recommendation
Responsible
Department Original Target Date and Response
Current
Status
Implementation Update and
Expected Completion Date
employee paychecks to ensure proper handling of
taxable meal pay to employees. Expected
Completion Date: 4/1/15
Prior Years’ Management Updates (summarized):
ASD updated the travel policy, petty cash policy, and
reimbursement form to ensure proper coding of
meals. ASD also established a new general ledger
account to capture taxable meals for inclusion on
employee W-2 forms as compensation. It takes
considerable staff time to track and record these
taxable meals such as meals provided during one-
day training and meals provided to employees
during overtime. Given the small number of
incidents and the low dollar amounts, probably in
the few thousand dollars citywide in a given year,
staff is looking at phasing out these types of meals.
A further complication is that meals are sometimes
purchased with a P-card and may be for several
staff. There is currently no easy way to assign these
charges to the appropriate person receiving the
meal.
Attachment C
Manager will report progress on implementation six months after the Council accepts the audit report, and every six months thereafter until all
recommendations have been implemented.
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
Finding: 1. Implementing a continuous monitoring process can help the City identify duplicate invoice payments. The City recovered 17
(71 percent) of 24 confirmed duplicate invoice payments.
1.1. Build a continuous monitoring
reporting process into the new ERP
system to identify potential
duplicate invoices based on
information such as vendor, date,
invoice number, and amount, and
run the report at least monthly. ASD
should review the results, seek
recovery of duplicate payments, and
identify and correct process
deficiencies that allowed the
duplicate payments to be processed.
ASD Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: TBD (date of ERP implementation)
Action Plan: ASD agrees that a continuous
monitoring reporting process should be part of
the accounts payable process. ASD and City staff
currently detects and recovers duplicate
payments through periodic account analysis,
contract monitoring and notifications from
vendors. Per the auditor’s recommendation,
ASD will develop and document an internal
control process to identify duplicates for the
new ERP system.
ASD is in the process of implementing a hard
stop in the City’s SAP system if the invoice date,
invoice number, and invoice amount are the
same. Previously, only a warning was issued and
it was possible to still enter a duplicate invoice.
This more restrictive configuration should
decrease the number of duplicate payments.
It is important to note that no system can
prevent 100% of duplicate payments. However
strong internal controls and entity -wide
Not Started
March 2018 Management Update:
As of 12/28/17, SAP is configured to
result in a hard stop if a duplicate
invoice is entered. Previously only a
warning was given. The fields that
are configured for a hard stop are a
combination of vendor number,
invoice date, reference text (invoice
number), amount and company
code.
In the upcoming demonstrations,
ASD will seek confirmation that the
new ERPs can provide similar
duplicate invoice detection.
Expected Completion Date: TBD
(date of ERP implementation)
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
coordination, can prevent most duplicates. With
technological advances and changing
requirements we have seen an increase in
duplicate invoices arriving in Accounts Payable.
Invoices come in to Accounts Payable from
multiple sources, and while previously a best
practice, requiring original invoices is no longer
practical. Invoices are now emailed by the
vendor, sent via DocuSign, by internal
departments and sometimes also sent via U.S.
mail.
1.2. Update invoice processing policies
and procedures, and disseminate the
updated policies to appropriate City
staff, to require:
a. Unique invoice numbers on all
documents submitted for
payment.
b. Use of credit memorandums or
other accounting entries to
correct invoice errors such as
duplicate invoices.
c. Referencing of the erroneous or
duplicate invoice using a unique
identifier (e.g., invoice number)
in credit memorandum entries
in SAP.
ASD Concurrence: Partially Agree
Target Date: 12/31/17
Action Plan:
a. ASD will request invoice numbers from
vendors, however it may not be
practical to require all vendors to
provide for unique invoice numbers on
all documents submitted for payment.
Some vendors such as phone
companies do not provide invoice
numbers. To follow-up with all vendors
that do not provide an invoice number
would slow down payment and require
additional staff hours. However ASD
staff will be more proactive in working
with vendors that submit invoices
without invoice numbers. We have
In Progress
March 2018 Management Update:
a. ASD is being pro-active in
contacting departments to request
that their vendors use unique invoice
numbers. ASD has created a “Master
Invoice Key” to improve consistency
for non-invoice payment requests.
We continually update this Key as
new patterns are detected.
b. ASD requests a credit memo from
vendors when possible. ASD has
informed departments that when
items are returned or an invoice
correction is needed, the preference
is to receive a credit memo rather
than a check payment from the
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
created a “Master Invoice Key” to
improve consistency for non- invoice
payment requests such as employee
reimbursements, rebates and refunds,
dues, subscriptions and registration
fees. This should mitigate risk of
duplicate payments on these invoices.
b. ASD requests a credit memo from the
vendor, when possible. Not all vendors
are set up to issue credit memos and
sometimes a reimbursement check is
generated before we were aware of
the duplicate payment. Sometimes the
departments request that the vendor
apply the credit or duplicate payment
amount to future invoices without ASD
staff’s knowledge. ASD staff will
include in the disseminated policy and
procedures instructions to the
departments explaining the process
when/if they detect or are informed of
a duplicate payment.
c. Credit memorandums typically have
their own unique identifier. This
unique identifier often does not have
any relationship to the invoice number
on the invoice that that was paid more
than once. ASD will add instructions in
the Accounts Payable manual to
reference the duplicate payment in the
text field. However this field was not
vendor.
c. ASD has written a procedure
specifically on how to process a
credit memo. The procedure
instructs ASD and department staff
to reference the original invoice
associated with the credit memo.
Expected Completion Date: March
31, 2018
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
used in the audit and therefore would
not have reduced the false positives.
1.3. Review the 121 unconfirmed
potential duplicate invoice payments
(see Exhibit 2), totaling about
$351,500, that were not in our
sample and prioritize recovery of
confirmed duplicates with a focus on
more recent and high dollar
duplicates. As part of its review, ASD
should identify what caused the
duplicate payment to occur and
implement process improvements to
reduce the potential for future
duplicate payments.
ASD Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 06/30/17
Action Plan: The data provided by the Auditor's
office contained 132 unconfirmed potential
duplicates, totaling approximately $521K. In a
preliminary review of the data, ASD determined
that 118 of the 132 were not duplicates
($506,103); 2 were duplicate entries but they
were corrected before a payment was issued
($5,388); 3 were duplicates that are resolved
($4,888); 1 is an unresolved duplicate payment
($275); and 8 require further research in order
to make a determination ($4,797).
Complete March 2018 Management Update:
ASD has reviewed the 121
unconfirmed potential duplicate
invoice payments. Of these, 3 have
the possibility of being duplicate
payments (totaling $1,144.75)
however based on our research they
are unlikely to be unresolved
duplicate payments. Staff does not
believe it is warranted to spend
additional time on these items given
their low dollar value and age.
The main cause of the “potential
duplicates” identified by the audit is
that the invoice reference number
was the same and therefore were
identified by the analytics as
duplicates.
Accounting has developed a Master
Invoice Key to improve consistency
for invoice reference numbers and to
ensure no reference number is used
twice for the same vendor.
As of 12/28/17, SAP is configured to
result in a hard stop if a duplicate
invoice is entered. Previously only a
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
warning was given. The fields that
are configured for a hard stop are a
combination of vendor number,
invoice date, reference text (invoice
number), amount and company
code.
Finding: 2. Numerous unneeded vendor records increase the risk of inappropriate and erroneous payments and payment records, as well
as incorrect tax reporting.
2.1. Update its policies and procedures
to provide clear guidance regarding:
Information needed to create
complete and accurate vendor
master records.
Not to create a new vendor
record when one already exists
for a vendor or its parent or
subsidiary companies unless, on
an exception basis, there is a
documented business need that
cannot be met (e.g., tracking
payments and creating payments
for a vendor with multiple
taxpayer identification
numbers).
A coding standard for entering
vendor information that includes
guidance on punctuation,
capitalization, spacing,
Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: 12/31/17
Action Plan: ASD will update policies and
procedures to provide information needed to
create complete and accurate vendor master
records. In some cases, for business needs,
duplicate vendor records are needed in the
current configuration of SAP to allow for
different payment addresses, for instance.
As part of the new ERP system City staff will
clean-up and establish new vendors for a fresh
start with the new ERP vendor database.
In progress March 2018 Management Update:
New standards are being rolled out
to standardize vendor creation and
to prevent the creation of duplicate
vendors. Staff is in the process of
finalizing these standards and
incorporating them into the formal
procedures.
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
abbreviation, special characters,
and other potential variables in
formatting identifying
information in order to prevent
duplicate records. This change
should be incorporated in the
new ERP system.
2.2. Build a continuous monitoring
process into the new ERP system to:
Review the vendor master file at
least annually to identify
duplicate, incomplete, or unused
vendor records (i.e., vendor
records not used during a time
frame determined by ASD).
Inactivate duplicate vendor
records, enter missing identifying
information based on reliable
source documents such as a
vendor-provided IRS Form W9,
and inactivate or archive unused
vendor records.
ASD Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: TBD (date of ERP implementation)
Action Plan: ASD agrees that a continuous
monitoring process should be built into the new
ERP system.
When the new ERP is implemented ASD will
prepare a plan to review the vendor master file
at least annually and inactivate unused,
incomplete or inactive vendors.
Part of the annual review of the master vendor
file will also entail identifying and deleting
duplicate vendors. In addition, staff will also
update the missing vendor record using
information from sources mentioned in the
recommendation. ASD staff will also work with
ERP Team to explore other options to
accommodate different “Remit To” addresses
without creating a new vendor number.
Not Started
March 2018 Management Update:
To be implemented with new ERP.
Prior to implementation, ASD will
prepare a plan to review the vendor
master file at least annually and
inactivate unused, incomplete or
inactive vendors.
Expected Completion Date: TBD
(date of ERP implementation)
2.3. Develop a requirement for the City’s
proposed new ERP system to
ASD Concurrence: Agree Complete March 2018 Management Update:
At the recent ERP demonstrations,
Attachment C
Recommendation Responsible
Department(s)
Agree, Partially Agree, or Do Not Agree
and Target Date and Corrective Action
Plan
Current
Status
Status
support multiple vendor addresses
to accommodate, on an exception
basis, the need to create more than
one vendor record for a business
entity.
Target Date: N/A
Action Plan: This request has already been
made to ERP Consultants in their fact finding
stage and is part of ERP requirements.
ASD confirmed that the new ERPs
can support multiple vendor remit to
addresses without the need to
create new vendors.
2.4. Clean the City’s vendor master file in
accordance with recommendations
2.1 and 2.2 before merging the data
into the City’s proposed new ERP
system.
ASD Concurrence: Agree
Target Date: TBD with adoption of new ERP
system
Action Plan: In order to provide consistency,
ASD intends to begin from scratch with the
Master Vendor File when the City adopts a new
ERP.
In Progress
March 2018 Management Update:
Prior to the conversion to a new ERP,
ASD will identify the vendors to input
into the new system. ASD will also
create a coding standard for data
entry to be used by Purchasing and
Accounts Payable.
Expected Completion Date: Prior to
ERP implementation