Audit Report on the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Controls over Technology Fees

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The City University of New York (CUNY) provides education to undergraduate and graduate students at 24 institutions across New York City.  Once enrolled, CUNY students are charged tuition and fees.  One of these fees is the Student Technology Fee (STF), which is used to improve technology-related services for the benefit of students and faculty.  During Academic Year 2016 – 2017, students were charged $62.50 or $125 per semester depending on whether the student was enrolled part-time or full-time, respectively.

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) is one of CUNY’s 24 colleges.  Each year, BMCC directs a STF Committee to develop a plan for how the college’s STF funds will be used in the following academic year.  The STF Committee is chaired by the BMCC Vice President of Information Technology and consists of school administrators, faculty and students.  CUNY asks its colleges, including BMCC, to maintain “significant student representation” on their STF Committee.

The STF Committee Chair solicits proposals for STF-funded projects from administrators and faculty, and the STF Committee meets, as a group, to review, discuss and evaluate those proposals.  Proposals for STF-funded projects generally include investments in computer hardware and software, library electronic databases, certain CUNY-wide technology initiatives and BMCC personnel services costs such as payments for computer lab assistants.

Once the STF Committee decides which STF-funded projects should be approved, the STF Committee Chair compiles the proposals into a STF Plan that is submitted for review and approval first to the BMCC President and then to the CUNY Office of Computing and Information Services.  The STF Plan describes STF-funded project proposals, how they will benefit students and details about the budgeted project costs.  During Fiscal Year 2017, BMCC collected $5,585,533 and expended $4,906,520 in STF funds.

We conducted this audit to determine whether BMCC STF expenditures were reasonable, appropriate, adequately supported and properly authorized.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

BMCC’s STF expenditures were generally appropriate, adequately supported and properly authorized.  However, BMCC did not ensure that STF expenditures were fairly and reasonably priced.  We sampled 27 STF expenditures totaling $876,534.  For 14 of those expenditures, totaling $207,126, BMCC obtained commodities and services through non-competitive procurement processes but did not properly document that the resulting procurements were justifiable and appropriate and that it obtained fair and reasonable prices.

In addition, CUNY and BMCC did not have adequate policies and procedures governing STF Committee formation and composition, and the allowable use of STF funds.  Furthermore, CUNY and BMCC did not have any policies and procedures for the solicitation and evaluation of proposed STF-funded projects, the review and approval of STF Plans and the tracking of budgeted and actual STF expenditures.

In the absence of clearly defined policies and procedures, BMCC and other CUNY colleges incur an increased risk of not properly planning, developing and implementing STF Plans.  Among other things, we found, that:

• BMCC and other CUNY colleges may not have maintained the “significant” student representation on STF Committees as required;
• BMCC may not have allowed STF Committee Members adequate time to evaluate, review and discuss STF-funded project proposals; and
• CUNY did not provide BMCC with timely feedback and approval.

In other matters, BMCC did not ensure that STF funds were fully used to improve technology-related services for the benefit of students and faculty.  In addition, CUNY did not ensure that 15 of its 24 colleges posted their complete Academic Year 2016-2017 STF Plans on their websites as required.

 

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, we make a total of nine recommendations, two to BMCC and seven to CUNY.

BMCC should:

• Ensure that the BMCC Purchasing Department obtains Non-competitive Justification Memos from end-users that include all information required by the CUNY FAQs.
• Ensure that the BMCC Purchasing Department makes written determinations as to whether or not sole source and single source procurements are appropriate and maintains those written determinations in the procurement files.

CUNY should:

• Implement policies and procedures that describe the roles and responsibilities of the various individuals who are responsible for planning, developing and implementing colleges’ STF Plans and provide instruction on STF Committee formation and composition, the allowable use of STF funds, the solicitation and evaluation of proposals for STF-funded projects, the review and approval of STF Plans and the tracking of budgeted and actual STF expenditures.
• Define “significant student representation” in terms of a minimum number or percentage of students.
• Provide colleges with feedback on their STF Plans each year, by no later than June, so that colleges can timely revise their STF Plans, if warranted, and implement their STF-funded projects for the upcoming academic year.
• Formally approve colleges’ STF Plans.
• Assess colleges’ technology needs and ensure that the fees charged are appropriate.
• Monitor colleges’ budgeted and actual expenditures of STF funds and ensure that the funds are used to their fullest potential.
• Review colleges’ websites to ensure that they publicly post their STF Plans each year as required.

 

Auditee Response

In its response, BMCC agreed with the two recommendations that were addressed to it, and CUNY agreed with five of the seven recommendations made to it.  CUNY did not address the remaining two recommendations: that it formally approve colleges’ STF Plans; and that it assess colleges’ technology needs and ensure that the fees charged are appropriate.