Watershed Management Inventory and fixed assets - June 2022

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Watershed Management Inventory and Fixed Assets
Released: June 2022

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​We undertook this audit of Watershed Management because our 2014 audit of the department’s inventory management process identified control gaps.

Our recommendations to the Watershed Management Commissioner are to improve inventory accuracy and the accountability of fixed assets.

We found:

• Watershed Management spent an average of $23 million annually for inventory, supplies, and non-capital equipment over the past eight fiscal years but has not fully implemented or enforced procedures developed in 2015 to protect its inventory.
• The department is not complying with procedures to separate responsibilities for requesting, purchasing, and receiving between inventory management and warehouse management teams.
• Employees are not conducting wall-to-wall inventory counts at the six-month intervals as directed by procedures.
• Our sample of 256 items at two warehouses found inventory accuracy rates of 16% and 49%, which are well below the industry standard of 95%.
• Watershed employees are also not complying with procedures for controlling fixed assets.