Audit Report on Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College’s Controls over Student Activity Fees

Executive Summary

This audit determined whether: 1) all student activity fees collected were turned over to the Eugenio Maria de Hostos (Hostos) Community College Association; and 2) the expenses incurred by the Hostos Association and funded by student activity fees were reasonable, appropriate, and in compliance with prescribed guidelines and bylaws.

As part of their tuition payments, full-time and part-time students pay student activity fees for student government and other student activities.  According to the City University of New York (CUNY) Bylaws, Article XVI, the College Association (Hostos Association) has the responsibility to supervise and review budgets for programs that are supported by student activity fees.  The fees, when collected, must be turned over to the Hostos Association, and the expenses they support must be reasonable, appropriate and in compliance with prescribed guidelines and bylaws.

At Hostos, full-time and part-time students pay $61.75 and $28.25 respectively in student activity fees per semester.  Based on the college’s reported student enrollment figures, $723,319 in student activity fees should have been collected in Fiscal Year 2017 (summer 2016, fall 2016, and spring 2017).

Audit Findings and Conclusion

The audit determined that all student activity fees collected from Hostos Community College students during Fiscal Year 2017 were turned over to the Hostos Association.  However, in many instances the auditors could not determine whether the expenses were reasonable and appropriate due to significant deficiencies with disbursement vouchers, including inadequate supporting documentation and non-compliance with prescribed guidelines.  The audit determined that Hostos did not maintain a list of persons authorized to approve and certify disbursement vouchers.  In addition, there were inappropriate certifying signatures on some disbursement vouchers, food and gift card purchases were inadequately supported, there was no evidence that Hostos obtained bids or price comparisons for a significant number of sampled purchases, and there was inadequate segregation of duties over a number of procurements.

Audit Recommendations

The audit made 13 recommendations, including:

• Ensure that signature cards are maintained for all entities or that signatories are documented in some other manner.
• Reinstruct staff charged with approving disbursement vouchers to verify the signatories, and ensure that the disbursement vouchers are complete. Ensure that food purchases have adequate supporting documentation, including signed attendance sheets.
• Require evidence of receipt for all types of monetary awards including gift cards.
• Ensure that bidding or price research is conducted to ensure that prices are reasonable.
• Ensure that functions are adequately segregated or implement other compensating controls including additional supervisory review.

Agency Response

In its response, Hostos agreed with the audit’s 13 recommendations.