An Audit Report on Selected Contracting Processes at the Commission on Environmental Quality
April 2006
Report Number 06-029
Overall Conclusion
The Commission on Environmental Quality (Commission) has systems and processes for contract management that provide reasonable assurance that contract payments and encumbrances comply with contract terms, state laws, Comptroller of Public Accounts guidelines, and Commission policy. While the Commission's financial processes provide reasonable assurance of compliance, they include inefficiencies that increase the risk of data-entry error in financial systems.
The Commission has not established adequate processes and controls for data management to ensure that (1) it complies with its internal contracting policies and the Texas Building and Procurement Commission's Contract Management Guide or (2) complete and accurate information is recorded in the contracts database, hard-copy contract files, and contractor performance evaluations database.
The lack of enforcement of internal contracting policies has led to inaccurate and incomplete data in the contracts database and has hindered the Commission's ability to accurately report on its contracting activities to executive management and external parties. For example, as of December 14, 2005, the contracts database showed a total dollar amount for contracts active during fiscal years 2004 and 2005 that was understated by approximately $200 million, or 25 percent. The contracts database is a stand-alone database, and the issues identified regarding this database have no negative impact on the Commission's annual financial report. In addition, the Commission's procedures for managing contract information have led to inefficiencies because the same data is entered into multiple systems for different information needs.
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