{"id":88766,"date":"2018-12-13T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T02:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=88766"},"modified":"2019-05-29T15:49:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T01:49:25","slug":"internal-audit-uh-managed-maunakea-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/12\/13\/internal-audit-uh-managed-maunakea-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Internal audit of <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> managed Maunakea lands finds no irregularities"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_56265\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56265\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/UHhilo-Maunakea.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"275\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/UHhilo-Maunakea.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/UHhilo-Maunakea-260x115.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56265\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maunakea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An audit of finances related to the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s management of Maunakea will be presented to the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Board of Regents Committee on Independent Audit on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 at 10:30 a.m., at the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Information Technology Building first floor conference room.<\/p>\n<p>The audit concluded that the &ldquo;University entities involved with Maunakea have developed processes and procedures to appropriately account for their respective transactions in connection with their management of Maunakea.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The audit was conducted at the direction of the Board of Regents by its February 2018 resolution requiring the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Office of Internal Audit to evaluate university funds, lease payments and external funds received in support of stewardship, management, education and other activities related to Maunakea. The audit also included the review of transfers of funds between entities including both the university and the Research Corporation of the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> (<abbr>RCUH<\/abbr>) and payments made to university-related support programs by the Maunakea observatories or other third parties.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/audit\/materials\/201812191030\/Cmte_on_Independent_Audit__12_19_18__Meeting_Materials___FOR_UPLOAD.pdf\">The complete audit, including findings, conclusions and response<\/a> (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The audit analyzed and\/or reviewed the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Comprehensive Management Plan and sub-plan<\/li>\n<li>The Maunakea Observatories Support Services Management (<abbr>MKSS<\/abbr>) plan<\/li>\n<li>Revenue and expense ledgers of the Office of Maunakea Management (<abbr>OMKM<\/abbr>) and <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr><\/li>\n<li>Transfers between <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr>, <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> and related entities (<abbr>UH<\/abbr> Institute for Astronomy, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo and <abbr>RCUH<\/abbr>)<\/li>\n<li>Contracts and agreements between <abbr>UH<\/abbr> and the 13 Maunakea observatories<\/li>\n<li>The four State of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Auditor reports<\/li>\n<li><abbr>OMKM<\/abbr>\u2019s 2017 Annual Report to the Board of Land and Natural Resources regarding the Status of the Implementation of the Comprehensive Management Plan<\/li>\n<li>Contracts and agreements between <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr> and tour operators<\/li>\n<li>Establishment and funding of accounts held by <abbr>RCUH<\/abbr><\/li>\n<li>Capital asset listings for reasonableness and appropriate accounting for depreciation (<abbr>OMKM<\/abbr> and <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr>)<\/li>\n<li>Minutes from meetings of the Maunakea Management Board and <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> Oversight Committee<\/li>\n<li><abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> invoices to the observatories and <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr>, noting the services performed, billing amount, date of services, etc.<\/li>\n<li><abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> shared expense allocation methodology by cost center<\/li>\n<li><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation accounts related to Maunakea<\/li>\n<li>Other relevant documents as deemed appropriate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Office of Internal Audit also toured the university\u2019s facilities on Maunakea, including the Visitor Information Station; lodging, dining and administrative facilities at Halep\u014dhaku, the mid level facility, and observatories.<\/p>\n<h2>Audit recommendations and management responses<\/h2>\n<p>The audit made several recommendations. Here are summaries of each recommendation and management\u02bbs response:<\/p>\n<p>1. <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> should consider consulting and collaborating with <abbr>RCUH<\/abbr> to determine whether accounting system enhancements are available to allow for a more efficient recordation of transactions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: We concur and have implemented recommendation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Internal Audit noted that payroll registers for historical fiscal years (in excess of one year) are not maintained by <abbr>RCUH<\/abbr>. Accordingly, <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> should monitor the status of <abbr>RCUH<\/abbr>\u2019s proposed system enhancement to archive historical payroll registers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: We concur and are implementing this recommendation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> should consider improving its documentation in regards to transfers between cost centers to ensure the flow of financial information is complete and accurate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: We concur. <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr> has implemented additional budget codes within its internal accounting system to more clearly document and track transfers between related cost centers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. In connection with the process of obtaining a new land authorization, <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr> and the observatories should discuss allocating a portion of Ranger Program costs to all observatories given the increase of these costs since 2000.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: We agree that the Maunakea Observatories should share in the costs of the Ranger program in the future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5. Determine if the commercial tour operator per passenger charge ($6) is sufficient to recover the costs incurred by <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr> and <abbr>MKSS<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: <abbr>OMKM<\/abbr> is working with the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa School of Travel Industry Management on a study to answer this question.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Institute for Astronomy should consult with the Financial Management Office to determine the applicability of Government Accounting Standard Board Statement No. 83, Certain Asset Retirement Obligations related to the future decommissioning of the four observatories owned by the university.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Management\u2019s Response<\/strong>: Management recognizes the auditor\u2019s advisement regarding accounting standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/audit\/materials\/201812191030\/Cmte_on_Independent_Audit__12_19_18__Meeting_Materials___FOR_UPLOAD.pdf\">The complete audit, including findings, conclusions and response<\/a> (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The audit concluded that the &ldquo;University entities involved with Maunakea have developed processes and procedures to appropriately account for their respective transactions in connection with their management of Maunakea.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1193,814],"tags":[659,305,14,947],"class_list":["post-88766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","category-maunakea","tag-maunakea","tag-office-of-mauna-kea-management","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-system","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88766"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97627,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88766\/revisions\/97627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}