YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
June 28, 2001
Report No. 2001-50
The
Kansas City Metropolitan Community Colleges (KCMCC) consist of the Longview
Community College, Maple Woods Community College, Penn Valley Community College,
and Blue River Community College as well as the Business and Technology
Center.� The KCMCC is governed by an
elected six-member Board of Trustees.�
The trustees serve a six-year term and serve without compensation.� The Board of Trustees appoints the
Chancellor who serves as the Chief Executive Officer.� The following concerns were discovered as a result of an audit
conducted of the Kansas City Metropolitan Community Colleges.
A review of the employment contracts, related
compensation and other benefits provided for the Chancellor and other officers
disclosed the following concerns:
�
As part of their compensation packages, various car
related expenses (i.e. gasoline, oil, etc.) are paid for by the KCMCC even
though a portion of these expenses would appear to relate to the personal use
of the vehicles.
�
The Chancellor was not required to account for any
expenditures made from the monies he received annually as a special expense
account.� He received $5,268 related to
this account in fiscal year 2000.�
�
The Chancellor�s contracts are not completed on a
timely basis.
�
The fiscal year 2000 compensation of the Chancellor and
the four campus Presidents was not accurately reported to the Missouri
Department of Higher Education.
The
colleges hire firms and individuals to perform various professional services;
however, requests for proposals were not solicited for many of the services
obtained.� In addition, written
agreements were not entered into for some of the professional services
noted.�
The
Board of Trustees� policy provides the KCMCC �will normally request proposals
for contracted services such as architects, construction managers, consultants,
banking service, auditors, bond counsel, investment banks, maintenance
contractors, and/or related contracted services.�� However, the Chancellor may elect to either solicit bids or
negotiate for these services.�� Our
audit of professional services expenditures and their procurement disclosed
that the colleges frequently negotiate for professional services.� For example, KCMCC has not solicited
proposals for its annual audits since fiscal year 1993 and did not solicit
proposals for some consultants hired to write grant proposals and advise on
various programs.
The
college system did not solicit proposals for the services of the bond counsel,
financial advisor, and trustee for debt instruments issued during fiscal years
1999 and 2000.� Other professional services
for which the KCMCC did not solicit proposals included W-2 processing, network
engineering implementation, wiring for various buildings, media relations and
business plan consultants for the Child Development Center, and arbitrage
services.� The college system paid over
$90,000 for these services in fiscal year 2000.� Also, the college system does not have a written agreement with
its legal counsel, nor did it solicit proposals for interpreting services for the
deaf.
According
to KCMCC records, approximately $200,000 was paid from unrestricted funds for
food costs during fiscal year 2000.�
These food purchases represented amounts billed from various food
service providers and did not include amounts reimbursed to employees through
expenses accounts or amounts paid with credit cards.� Our review of the food purchases made in fiscal year 2000
disclosed that some of these purchases may not have been a prudent, reasonable,
or necessary use of KCMCC funds.� While
a certain level of food expense is probably necessary, those costs need to be
assessed in terms of their importance compared to other critical education
needs.
The
KCMCC has not established district-wide written policies and procedures
regarding the handling of delinquent student account receivable and their
write-off, if applicable.� As a result,
inconsistencies were noted in the handling of delinquent accounts at the
various campuses and instances were noted where students were allowed to enroll
with a balance due from a previous semester, contrary to district policy.
Various
record keeping problems were noted regarding the Child Development Center
located on the Penn Valley campus.� In
addition, the Child Development Center allowed some accounts to remain
delinquent for an extended period of time without appropriate action being
taken.� The day care center on the
Longview campus operated without a license from November 1998 to March 1999 due
to non-compliance with licensing issues.�
It appears these issues were not addressed in a timely basis.
Other
findings noted that a physical inventory of general fixed assets has not been
completed for several years, even though KCMCC guidelines require such
inventories annually.� Also, procedures
and controls over the collection of monies at various points needs to be
improved.
Criminal
background checks on prospective employees are not initiated by the Human
Resources Department, and the information obtained by other departments through
these background checks is not maintained in the Human Resources Department.
The
KCMCC subsidizes most of the operating expense of its Foundation, a
not-for-profit corporation established to receive donations and provide
financial support and assistance for the KCMCC.� These subsidies totaled over $550,000 during the two years ended
June 30, 2000.� This practice does not
appear to be appropriate and may violate provisions of the Missouri
Constitution.
In its responses to the various recommendations, the KCMCC indicated that many of the problems reported had already been corrected or were in the process of being corrected.