Benford’s Law Audit – 2018 Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office Accounts Payable January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018

The Department of Internal Auditing (DIA) has conducted an audit of the financial operations and general accounting of the Cuyahoga County Accounts Payable Department (AP) within the Fiscal Office, for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018. The audit focused on identifying duplicate transactions and inadequate internal controls. Specifically, audit work was conducted related to the internal controls over the AP function of the Fiscal Office to determine if procedures currently being utilized are operating as intended by management; are consistent with Fiscal Office policies and procedures and all governing laws and regulations; and transactions are properly supported, approved and recorded. DIA noted that expenditures were for a proper public purpose and agreed to the supporting documentation. Furthermore, DIA did not identify any instances of payment splitting or rounding under thresholds or unusual spending habits. However, audit procedures identified recoveries in the amount of $5,041 due to duplicate payments. The duplicate payments identified were not detected by AP; they were either identified and corrected by the vendor or corrected by AP after identification of such during the audit.