Internal Audit Follow-Up Report Local Government Project Oversight TxDOT Internal Audit Division
Objective Assess the status of corrective actions for high-risk Management Action Plans (MAPs) previously communicated in the Local Government Project Oversight audit report issued August 21, 2013 and the Follow-Up engagement issued July 25, 2014. Summary Results Testing included an evaluation of 5 MAPs to determine if corrective actions were implemented as agreed. MAP Status Comments 5 Closed Corrective actions have been completed. Scope The audit focused on the Local Government Project Office (LGPO; now part of the Transportation Planning and Programming Division) and Austin, Beaumont, Fort Worth, Houston, and Yoakum Districts. The fieldwork covered LGPO distributions of the projects statewide and the district responses to the list in order to improve the accuracy of the LGPO projects statewide. The audit work tested was for 2015. The engagement was performed by Keith Laird and Jill Emery (Engagement Lead). The engagement was conducted during the period from October 1, 2015 to October 23, 2015. Methodology The engagement work included: Interviewed key personnel in the Local Government Project Office (LGPO) and the Beaumont, Fort Worth, Houston, and Yoakum Districts to determine status of the MAPs Reviewed Design and Construction Information System (DCIS) screen to determine means of identifying local government projects state-wide Obtained bi-monthly memorandums from LGPO to the districts distributing a current list of local government projects for district review Reviewed supporting documentation to determine if district responses to the LGPO memorandum were made within 7 days Background This report is prepared for the Texas Transportation Commission and for the Administration and Management of TxDOT. The report presents the results of the Local Government Project Oversight Follow-Up engagement which was conducted as part of the Fiscal Year 2016 Audit Plan. The Local Government Project Office (LGPO) uses the Design and Construction Information System (DCIS) to identify all active projects that are 1) managed by a local government and reimbursed by FHWA or TxDOT funds, or 2) totally funded by the local government but on the State Highway System. Although district offices are responsible for the DCIS data, LGPO creates a list of these projects from DCIS to assist districts in keeping accurate and current data within DCIS. August 2016 2
We conducted this follow-up engagement in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards and in conformance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. Those standards require that we plan and perform the engagement to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our conclusions based on our engagement objective. Recommendations to mitigate risks identified were previously provided to management during the original engagement to assist in the formulation of the management action plans referenced in this report. The Internal Audit Division uses the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) Internal Control Integrated Framework version 2013. August 2016 3
Detailed MAP Follow-Up Status MAP Status: Closed Corrective actions have been completed. Original Audit Finding Number 1: Completeness and Accuracy of the Local Government Project Listing MAP Owner: David M.Y. Millikan, P.E., Section Director, Local Government Project MAP 1.1: LGPO will work with other divisions to identify an existing TxDOT database to use as the source of all necessary LG project data (it is anticipated that the Design and Construction Information System (DCIS) contains all necessary data.) LGPO will work with appropriate divisions to identify methodology to filter all DCIS project data to consistently retrieve only information on desired local government projects Original Completion Date: September 15, 2013 Revised Completion Date: September 15, 2014 FMAP 1.1: LGPO will work with the districts to further improve the accuracy of DCIS project. LGPO will cross check and verify data accuracy as each new list is prepared and will share this information with the districts for verification. It is anticipated that LGPO will prepare new local government project listings on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Districts and other users of local government project information may also extract the data used in creation of the list at any time. Completion Date: September 15, 2014 MAP Owners: Quincy D. Allen, P.E., District Engineer, Houston William Brudnick, P.E., Director, Transportation Planning & Development Michael Bostic, P.E., Director of Construction, Fort Worth District Christopher D. Caron, P.E., District Engineer, Corpus Christi Paul Reitz, P. E., District Engineer, Yoakum FMAPs 1.2, 1.3, & 1.4: The Houston District Transportation, Planning, & Development team, the Ft. Worth District Construction Administrator, and the Yoakum Transportation Engineer Supervisor will compare the bi-monthly LGPO list to the District s local government project list. All discrepancies will be reported to the LGPO and corrected within 7 days after receipt. Completion Date: September 15, 2014 August 2016 4
Closing Comments The results of this MAP Follow-Up engagement were discussed with the Local Government Project Office Director and Houston, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, and Yoakum Districts on November 9, 2015. The Internal Audit team appreciates the cooperation and assistance received during this engagement. August 2016 5