Weaknesses in Internal Financial and Accounting Controls at National Park Service Accounting Stations

GAO evaluated the accounting controls at nine National Park Service accounting stations.

GAO found that accounts receivable were not well controlled at most accounting stations. They were not always billed before their due dates, and late-payment charges were not assessed for amounts overdue. Further, travel advances were not periodically reviewed or analyzed to recover outstanding advances; collections were not adequately controlled, properly logged in, or promptly deposited; transfers between organizational units were not properly documented; and unidentified collections either were not deposited and recorded in a suspense account or were allowed to remain in a suspense account for an unreasonable length of time. Many accounting stations were not monitoring recreation fee collection activities, and some collection officers were also designated as imprest fund cashiers. Imprest funds at most accounting stations were not adequately controlled or safeguarded and were not used to the fullest extent practical for small purchases of supplies and nonpersonal services as required by regulations. Separate cash funds for cashiers were not maintained; safe combinations were not changed annually; and periodic reviews of procedures to prevent loss or misuse of the funds were not made. In addition, disbursements were not scheduled to coincide with due dates, and reasons for lost cash were not documented. Finally, GAO found that internal audits of regional financial activities have not been performed recently and that the Park Service lacked a sufficiently comprehensive procedures manual to guide employees in all aspects of day-to-day financial and accounting transactions.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John F. Simonette Team: General Accounting Office: Accounting and Financial Management Division Phone: (202) 275-1581