69-16 Internal Controls Ordinance

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lives. The simple act of locking our doors at night or taking our vehicles for routine oil changes are control activities intended to achieve objec- tives of keeping our home safe and our cars in good order. Given that most employees in the county audi- tor's office are also parents, one training exercise applied an internal control thought process to an objec- tive that parents have: Keeping their children healthy. The environment most parents have established in their household incorporates personal responsibility for one's well- being. Parents assess the risk that their chil- dren might get cavities, due to their proclivity to like sweets and their unwillingness to brush and floss as often as their parents want them to. To minimize this risk, parents take their children to the dentist every six months, even if nothing is wrong with their teeth. Parents seek reli- able information when choosing their dentist or the treatment plans recom- mended. And" parents monitor their children's dental health; if repeated cavities occur, parents might imple- ment new activities, such as giving their children incentives to brush and floss more regularly. By understanding how internal control systems have relevance to our daily lives, employees should be more apt to recognize the need for enhanced controls at the workplace. Once employees are comfortable with the definition and components of internal control, they can then be introduced to the 17 principles that represent the requirements for an effective control system.4 Staff can then integrate these principles in their daily responsibilities. For example, one function in a county auditor's office is to process payroll. The objec- tive is clear: No employee should be paid more or less than their approved salary, and tax withholdings and benefit deductions must be correct. But what is the risk that this objective will not be met? For some counties, the risk of payroll errors might be attributed to archaic or faulty payroll software programs or to a lack of available payroll staff. To minimize this risk, staff can be cross - trained in Analysts estimate the world's data will grow 50 fold in the next five years. Federal government agencies already produce and house massive amounts of data, collected from a variety of sources. Most of this data is unstructured, and deemed too large or raw for analysis. Many federal agencies struggle with successfully mining data out of separate systems to capture processes and search for anomalies to understand where internal controls are absent or weak. We Partner with Industry Leaders to Implement Innovative Continuous Monitoring Software ' A Service Disabled Veteran -Owned Business Source: blog.aicpa.org /2012 /01 /internal- co nt ro I -i me g rated - framework -20- years -I ate r. htm1#sthashAXBB8Kt4.dpbs payroll processing, and a non - payroll employee could be assigned to cross check payroll reports with the pay levels set i.;i the annual salary ordi- nance. Department heads could be required to sign off on their employee pay prior to the issuance of paychecks, AOC Solutions brings a cadre of experienced federal financial professionals who have successfully assisted federal agencies in tackling "Big Data" challenges. AOC is partnering with industry leaders to bring Continuous Monitoring suites of applications to federal Agencies in line with OMB's call for innovative methods to identify, prevent, detect, and correct erroneous and improper transactions. With our Continuous Monitoring and data mining solutions and our extensive experience in the design and implementation of data, process and system reviews, AOC Solutions can help Agencies gain traction in leveraging their data for success. �e AOC 703.234.6300 1 www.aocsolutions.com EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCEPTION FALL 2016 JOURNAL OF GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 23