(The Center Square) — Louisiana State University at Shreveport was found with three major failures in an audit of its financial statements.
The audit was performed by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office for the period of July 1, 2022 to June 30.
The report noted three different findings: Ineffective bank reconciliations, noncompliance with timekeeping records requirements, and theft of cash received by the athletics department.
For the reconciliations, a prior-report finding found the same issues, meaning they have not been resolved despite previous audits. The same goes for a weakness in controls over payroll, which has only been partially resolved since the last audit.
The ineffective banking is a result of LSU-Shreveport not accurately and timely recording transactions in its accounting systems. An unexplained net difference of $167,800 was found between the bank balance and the accounting systems cash balance.
Auditors say the difference is due, in part, to a large number of reconciling items that are dated prior to January 2022 and not resolved. This includes $1.8 million in transactions recorded that did not appear on the bank statement, and $1.7 million in deposits on the bank statement that were not recorded.
Included in these amounts are Pilots Pointe Apartment deposits totaling $69,292 from July 2020 to June 2021 that cleared the bank but are not recorded.
Management of LSU-Shreveport said it believes the majority of these transactions offset each other, but it did not have sufficient information to match them exactly and clear them from the reconciliation.
The second issue, noncompliance with timekeeping records, is the result of LSU-Shreveport unclassified employees who earn leave not certifying time and attendance records monthly as required by Louisiana Revised Statute.
Auditors noted 381, or 8%, of 4,972 payroll records analyzed that were not certified by the employee within 30 days of the day after the payroll period end date.
Delays in the certification of records averaged 64 days and ranged from 31-424 days of the day after the payroll period end date.
The final issue was two instances of theft of cash receipts identified in the LSU-Shreveport athletic department, which estimated at approximately $8,850. The exact amount of the thefts could not be determined due to a lack of documentation over cash receipts.
The first theft occurred in October 2023 and involved $850 in missing cash that had been left unsecured in the top drawer of a desk. LSU-Shreveport investigated, but no suspects were identified, and no additional safeguards over cash were put in place.
The second theft occurred in April 2024 and was discovered when an employee who resigned notified the athletics management that cash was left in the safe; however, upon investigating the contents of the safe, it was discovered that the cash was missing.
Based on LSU-Shreveport’s investigation, no cash deposits were made from November 2023 to April 2024, during which time approximately 17 women’s basketball, 18 men’s basketball, and 18 men’s baseball games occurred. It was estimated that approximately $8,000 in cash was stolen from the safe based on interviews conducted during the investigation.