Letter Report On Kingsborough Community College’s Controls Over Student Activity Fees

Executive Summary

This Letter Report concerns the New York City Comptroller’s audit of Kingsborough Community College’s (Kingsborough’s) controls over student activity fees.  The objective of this audit was to determine: 1) whether all student activity fees collected were turned over to the College Association (Kingsborough Association); and 2) whether the expenses incurred by the Kingsborough 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 CUNY Bylaws, Article XVI, the Kingsborough Association has the responsibility to supervise and review budgets for programs that are supported by student activity fees.  When the fees are collected, they are turned over to the Kingsborough Association.  The expenses they support must be reasonable, appropriate, and in compliance with prescribed guidelines and bylaws.

At Kingsborough, full-time and part-time students pay $85.00 and $42.50 respectively in student activity fees per semester.  Activity fees are not collected for the summer and winter semesters.  Based on the college’s enrollment figures for Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018, $1,907,058.85 and $1,855,046.65, respectively, in student activity fees should have been collected for those years.  The CUNY Bylaws require that the student activity fees, once paid, be deposited in the relevant college’s central depository to be allocated and expended for various programs and activities, including extracurricular educational programs, cultural and social activities, recreational and athletic programs, student government, community service, and payments of stipends to student leaders.

For Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018, the Kingsborough Association oversaw 26 student activity budgets including but not limited to Athletics, Campus Activities Board, Clubs, College Association, Commencement Ceremonies, and Scholarship & Service Awards.  The Kingsborough Association holds meetings to outline spending plans, review budget proposals and allocate funds to the student clubs and the Association organizations before the fiscal year begins.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

We determined that Kingsborough had adequate controls in place to generally ensure that student activity fees collected during Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 were turned over to the Kingsborough Association.  Specifically, the controls established by CUNY and Kingsborough include the following:

· Development of clearly defined policies and procedures for its staff regarding the collection and disbursement of student activity fees.

· Segregation of responsibilities for the fees collection process, including the receipt of payments, reconciliation of cash collected by a supervisor, and the safeguarding of funds collected.

· Policies and guidelines regarding disbursements of student activity fees including the establishment of budgets, the approval of expenditures, adherence to guidelines regarding the requirements for spending thresholds, and the safeguarding of checks.

Based on our review of Kingsborough’s student enrollment numbers and the student activity fees assessed, we determined that all the student activity fees collected from Kingsborough students during Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 were turned over to the Kingsborough Association.  In addition, during the course of our review, we found that Kingsborough maintained a list of persons authorized to approve and certify disbursement vouchers, and all disbursement vouchers were signed with the appropriate signatures.  We also determined that, excepting certain food and gift card purchases described below, the expenses incurred by the Kingsborough Association were reasonable, appropriate, adequately supported, and in compliance with prescribed guidelines and bylaws.

According to the Fiscal Handbook, the Kingsborough Association is required to solicit bids for catering purchases of food for catering events. If bids are not solicited, a reasonable price must be determined. For Fiscals Years 2017 and 2018, the Kingsborough Association purchased food for 97 events from 18 off-site campus vendors, totaling $75,258 and $99,538 respectively.  However, the Association did not solicit bids or obtain price comparisons as required by applicable guidelines.  Kingsborough officials stated that the Association was under the assumption that catering was excluded from those purchases requiring bid solicitations.  Officials stated that as of Fiscal Year 2019, the Association began implementing procedures that would include the solicitation of bids or obtaining of price comparisons as required.

In addition, the Kingsborough Association periodically issues gift cards to students as awards for competitions.   The Kingsborough Association was not able to locate receipts to substantiate the awards for 33 gift cards (totaling $2,150) of the 338 reported as being issued to students during Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018.  As a result, we are unable to confirm that these funds were used in the manner stated.

Audit Recommendation

The audit recommended that the Kingsborough Association should ensure that expenses are incurred and documented in accordance with its guidelines.  This includes ensuring that bidding or price research is conducted as required and always maintaining supporting documents (e.g., receipts) for purchases.

Agency Response

Kingsborough agreed with the audit recommendation.  With regard to the bidding and price research, Kingsborough stated that “[d]uring Fiscal Year 19, the Procurement Department (Purchase) has required the clubs and organizations of the Kingsborough Community College Association (Association) to submit at least three (3) quotes to document their price research for external catering services of $1,000 or more for the large scale events…Going forward, the Association will continue the Fiscal Year 19 practice. . . .”  With regard to maintaining supporting documents for purchases, Kingsborough stated, “[o]ur current procedure includes receiving signed prize receipt forms from the recipients to ensure that such gift cards were purchased and distributed as intended.”