Chicago Public Schools - Internal Audit Reviews

Client Project Chicago Public Schools Internal Audit Review Solutions Internal Audit Quality Assurance/Quality Control Project Summary Chicago Public Schools contracted Bronner to provide Internal Audit services to the Board of Education ("BOE").

 

Challenge

Chicago Public Schools ("CPS") contracted Bronner to provide Internal Audit services to the Board of Education. These services include performing "Principal Transition" and Diagnostic or "Sniff" Audits, in addition to performing special projects. These projects have included reviewing payroll records and grant awards to ensure proper use of funds.

Solution

Bronner provided the following services to meet CPS's objectives:

• Planed and conducted in-depth audit and review procedures to meet the objectives of the audit;
• Conducted interviews with various school administrators to assess the processes and procedures in place in order to make appropriate recommendations;
• Documented findings and recommendations, provide narratives of work conducted, and provide summaries of interviews with school administrators; and,
• Prepared a concise audit report to management of issues, findings, and recommendations to improve the financial operations of the school.

Financial controls and documentation were gathered, analyzed, and tested for the time period under review. These items included:

• Bank statements;
• Cash reconciliation;
• Cash disbursement journal;
• Cash receipts journal;
• Payroll records;
• Grant award documents;
• Policy and procedure documents;
• Disbursement requisitions;
• Organizational chart; and,
• Numerous other finance-related information depending on the scope of the review.

Results

Our efforts in analyzing and reporting on the various high schools and elementary schools within the Chicago Public Schools have helped improve the design and process of the financial procedures. The audit procedures Bronner performed identified ineffective internal controls and highlighted problems in the financial processes that schools performed on a daily basis. Recommendations were implemented to give the schools the opportunity to improve and streamline their finance department, which allowed the District resources to operate more effectively with less waste and inaccuracies.

 

 back to top