Southwest Texas State University
An Audit Report on Management Controls at Southwest Texas State University
Report Number 96-057
Overall Conclusion
In several areas, Southwest Texas State University's management control systems are deficient in design and/or implementation. These deficiencies impact the University's ability to ensure that its mission and objectives will be fully accomplished and that assets will be appropriately safeguarded.
Key Facts And Findings
The University did not effectively use or analyze available information to support decisions regarding the purchase and lease of major auxiliary enterprise acquisitions such as Aquarena Springs (for $7 million), the Sound and Recording Studio (leased for $66,000 per year), and the Clear Springs Apartments (for $2.7 million). As a result purchase prices, lease terms, and potential liabilities may not have been as favorable to the University as possible. Monitoring of and intervention in operations at Aquarena Springs (with cumulative losses in the first 20 months of over $1.3 million) was not timely and may have resulted in a higher cost to the University.
The University Athletic Department has shown a consistent pattern over several years of not being able to stay within budget. Over the past five years, the original Board-approved budget has been overspent by over $3.1 million. The Athletic Department has been allowed to continue this pattern of overspending by being granted numerous budget increases during the fiscal year and being allowed to run deficits in excess of those increases. There were 131 budget changes in fiscal year 1995. After intra-period budget increases, the Athletic Department has still run deficits in three of the last five years totaling $849,845.
Although the University requires all divisions and departments to have strategic plans, the quality and content of these plans vary greatly within the University. Of the plans reviewed, some division and department plans did not have strategies and some plans did not clearly distinguish between goals, objectives, and strategies. Other plans contained strategies stating reasons why objectives can not be accomplished, as opposed to means to accomplish the objectives.
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