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Jun
22
2018
Report Number:
FCS-FM-18-018
Report Type:
Audit Reports
Category: Finance

Bank Deposit Procedures – Bronx, NY, Botanical Station

Background

This report presents the results of our audit of Bank Deposit Procedures – Bronx, NY, Botanical Station. The Botanical Station is in the New York District of the Northeast Area. This audit was designed to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on potential financial control risks at Postal Service locations.

Postal retail units (PRU) consolidate funds from daily transactions and prepare and remit bank deposits in tamper-evident plastic bags. Accounting Services reconciles banking activities and issues financial differences of over $50 to the PRU to research and resolve. It is the responsibility of the postmaster or unit manager to ensure proper procedures are followed in preparing daily bank deposits by monitoring banking differences issued by Accounting Services. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) data analytics identified $5,447 in banking differences on 10 dates, issued to the Botanical Station between October 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018. The unit reported a total of $316,021 of deposits on the 10 dates, but the bank reported receiving only $310,574.

Objective, Scope and Methodology

The objective of this audit was to determine whether bank deposits were properly processed at the Botanical Station.

We reviewed daily financial records and attached supporting documentation maintained by the unit from October 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018. We observed the closing procedures and conducted interviews of unit personnel and Postal Service management.

We relied on computer-generated data from the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). We did not test the validity of controls over these systems; however, we verified the accuracy of the data by reviewing related documentation, tracing selected information to supporting source records, and interviewing knowledgeable Postal Service employees. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report.

We conducted this audit from April through June 2018, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our objective. We discussed our observations and conclusions with management on May 31, 2018, and included their comments where appropriate.

Report Recommendations

# Recommendation Status Value Initial Management Response USPS Proposed Resolution OIG Response Final Resolution
1

R - 1 -- Reiterate to Botanical Station Post Office personnel policies for the appropriate level of security for advance deposits.

Closed $0 Agree