Southtowns Record

North Collins Central School District – Information Technology Equipment Inventory (2023M-39)

Government
North Collins Central School District
Posted by publisher
Jun 23, 2023
Kind
State audit
Topics
Audits and oversight

Publisher's summary

District officials did not maintain a complete and accurate inventory of IT assets (computers, tablets, document cameras, etc.).As a result, District officials cannot be assured that these assets are adequately accounted for and would be detected if lost, stolen, misused or if they became obsolete.

Original document

Text · page 7 of 14

l Three had acquisition costs under $100 each. The IT Director told us that the
  IT Department had not historically tracked IT items with costs under $100.

Not tagging and adding acquired IT assets to the District’s device list in a timely
manner places those assets at risk of loss or theft; if an item were to disappear
before being tagged and inventoried, District officials may never know the item
was lost.

Recycled Devices – In April 2022, the Board approved 370 devices to be recycled
but six were not removed from the device list.

Because there was no process in place, such as an annual physical inventory to
ensure all devices obtained by the District were added to the device list and all
devices disposed of or recycled were removed from the device list, these errors
and discrepancies were not identified and corrected.

The Board did not develop and adopt a policy to convey its expectations for
tracking IT equipment or maintaining proper inventory records. In addition, while
the IT Director told us that each of the IT Department’s four employees update
the device list and are responsible for ensuring the records are accurate, the IT
Director did not develop written procedures to provide specific guidance to those
individuals. The IT Director also did not review the device list to ensure new items
were added and disposed items were removed; he said the District does not
have the resources to do this. Due to a lack of oversight and guidance, and the
absence of an annual physical inventory, the District’s IT inventory records were
incomplete and inaccurate.

Without complete, accurate, and up-to-date IT equipment inventory records,
District officials cannot be assured that these assets are properly insured,
adequately accounted for and would be detected if lost, stolen, misused or if they
became obsolete.

Officials Could Not Locate IT Equipment
Due to the lack of complete IT equipment inventory records, we attempted to
locate 79 IT devices1 with the IT Director and could not locate 30 of them (38
percent). These items included 13 computers, five tablets, two computer monitors,
two projectors, two printers, two network switchgears, two internal power supplies
for switches, a television and a cart. Although District staff was able to locate the
other 49 items, much investigation was needed to locate them because of the
District’s inaccurate IT inventory records.

1 Please see Appendix B – Audit Methodology and Standards for sampling methodology.

  Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller  5