Walton Central School District – IT Asset Management (S9-22-24)

Issued Date
March 16, 2023

[read complete report – pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether Walton Central School District (District) officials appropriately tracked, inventoried and safeguarded information technology (IT) assets acquired or in use during the audit period.

Key Findings

District officials did not appropriately track or inventory IT assets, maintain complete IT inventory records or establish adequate controls to safeguard IT assets. As a result, officials cannot assure taxpayers that money invested in IT assets has been appropriately spent or safeguarded.

We selected 57 IT assets to confirm their location and that they were inventoried, and 10 additional IT assets to confirm they were inventoried. We found 51 percent of the sampled assets were not properly accounted for. Specifically:

  • Ten Chromebooks could not be physically located (one with a purchase price of $228 and nine with combined estimated costs of $2,052 based on recent purchase prices).
  • Twenty-four IT assets (20 with a combined purchase/ lease price of $107,183 and four without recorded costs) were not inventoried.

In addition, annual inventories were not conducted and officials did not adopt a comprehensive written policy for establishing and maintaining IT equipment inventory.

Key Recommendations

  • Ensure District inventory records are complete and accurate.
  • Perform annual and complete physical inventories and compare results to inventory records.

District officials disagreed with certain aspects of our findings and recommendations. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the District’s response letter.