Texas A&M University System: Administrative and General Offices
A Follow-up Audit Report on Management Controls at Texas A&M University and the System Offices
November 1996
Report Number 97-012
Overall Conclusion
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, System Offices, and University management have made significant progress in addressing issues and implementing recommendations from An Audit Report on Management Controls at Texas A&M University and the System Offices, (SAO Report No. 95-041, January 1995). Both the University and System Offices have invested considerable resources to improve their management control systems, and we commend these efforts.
Key Facts and Findings
System and University officials are providing more effective leadership. The Board of Regents created a Policy Committee that reviewed existing policies and made recommendations to the Board for needed policy revisions and additions. The Committee also defined a management structure for establishing policy, regulations, and rules. Personnel have been informed of new policies, regulations, and rules. Training has been, or will be, provided in the use of these rules, and efforts are being made to monitor compliance.
The University established the Office of Contract Administration and Regulatory Compliance to minimize risks and liabilities associated with contracting for services. This Office provides an effective control to ensure that contracts are reviewed for compliance with University rules and regulations.
Improvements in the management of human resources have been achieved by centralizing the process of screening and hiring employees, and expanding the employee training programs. An area that still needs improvement is compliance with the University's policy for supporting pay actions with current written performance evaluations.
While efficiencies have been realized through better coordination of information resources, opportunities remain for more gains in efficiency. The implementation of an online purchasing system has reduced the level of duplicate data entry among departments. Use of a new software application to download data directly from the mainframe system to personal computers has saved time preparing management reports. However, other manual administrative operations currently done by departments could be completed more efficiently if they were automated.
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