Treasury Department
An Audit Report on the Texas State Treasury Department's Automated Systems and Processes
Report Number 95-159
Internal controls over automated systems at the Texas State Treasury Department help protect the State's cash and securities. The Treasury held investments worth $8.2 billion at the end of the 1994 fiscal year.
The Treasury has not adequately documented automated applications or sufficiently cross-trained employees to back up key data processing personnel. This is particularly true of an extensive array of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets vital to the Treasury's cash management and investment functions.
If the Treasury and the Comptroller of Public Accounts merge, the Comptroller should ensure that functions involving the custody of cash or investments remain segregated from its existing responsibilities. This would reduce the risk of errors or inappropriate actions and give the State's leaders greater assurance that assets are protected.
Eliminating the Treasury's Fund Post System may be possible if the capabilities of USAS expand to include tracking actual cash balances. Doing so would eliminate reconciling errors due to timing differences between the two systems and increase efficiency. It would also allow for the accumulation of all State cash transactions in one system.
Combining the Treasury's Cash Flow Forecasting Department with the Comptroller's Revenue Estimating Division could result in a more efficient process, if the Treasury and Comptroller merge their agencies.
The Treasury and the Comptroller could improve procedures for recording agency securities transactions. As of August 31, 1994, the Treasury held $460 million of these securities.
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