Keyano College, SAIT draw ire of province’s auditor general
The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology needs to make sure former employees can’t access its IT networks, while Keyano College is lagging behind other post-secondary institutions when it comes to fiscal reporting, according to Alberta’s auditor general.
Doug Wylie’s report, released Wednesday, found 19 of Alberta’s 20 public post-secondary institutions have adequate financial reporting systems, but Fort Mcmurray’s Keyano College fell short for the third year in a row.
The college must train staff on Canadian public-sector accounting standards, improve monitoring and reviewing “to ensure accurate financial information,” understand legislative requirements and monitor and report non-compliance to senior management and audit committees, Wylie wrote.
When it comes to Calgary’s SAIT, Wylie rapped the institute’s knuckles for failing to promptly remove network access for terminated employees, leaving the school in danger of unauthorized access to its systems.
“Based on our audit finding that numerous former SAIT employees still had active network user privileges, we recommend that the institution needs to improve its network access controls for terminated employees,” Wylie said in a news release. “While management inspected the accounts of former employees and determined that none had been accessed within the past year, without a process or control to remove these accounts, there is a risk of unauthorized access to SAIT’S systems.”
Macewan University also needs to pull its socks up.
“We recommend that Macewan University improve its processes for management to regularly communicate to the board of governors and its committees the adequacy and operating effectiveness of the university’s internal control environment,” Wylie wrote.
He also recommended that University of Calgary improve its internal controls program to mitigate financial risks.
Eight post-secondary institutions have old recommendations that need to be addressed. Of those Alberta University of the Arts, Athabasca University, Northern Lakes College and Olds College have outstanding recommendations ready for a followup audit.
Wylie also released a report on the third year of rotational audits to verify that the expenses of the premier, ministers, associate ministers and their staff are in compliance with both established directives and policies and the Treasury Board Committee oversight process.
The 2018 audit determined that all of the departments examined — Agriculture and Forestry, Economic Development and Trade, Environment and Parks, Infrastructure, Justice and Solicitor General, Municipal Affairs, and Transportation — had effective processes in place.