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Quarterly Progress Report: OLA Audit Remedial Measures as of April 1, 2020

Background

Dr. Goldson issued Prince George’s County Public School’s (PGCPS) plan for remedial measures in response to the release of the Office of Legislative Audits Report (OLA) in March of 2019. The OLA Audit contained 19 findings which required remedial work on the part of PGCPS. PGCPS’s detailed remedial plan contained multiple steps toward improving every finding along with deadlines for each such remedial step. The overall purpose of this plan is to ensure Prince George’s County Schools are entirely in compliance with the relevant standards outlined in the OLA Report.

Dr. Goldson pledged PGCPS would publish on its website quarterly progress reports for each finding listed in the OLA Report. The progress report will list each Finding and give a color-coded status of the progress to date. Below are the color codes:

Green=completed, on schedule

Yellow=completed, behind schedule

Blue=in progress, on track

Orange=lagging, but no missed deadline

Red=implementation is late

Some of the OLA Findings were “Repeat Findings” meaning the Finding or some portion of the Finding appeared in an earlier OLA Audit Report. These will be identified.

April 1, 2020 Progress Report

Finding	New or Repeat	Finding Summary	Status	Comment
Finding 1	(Repeat)	“Existing procedures and controls were not adequate to ensure that proper amounts were received and all collections were deposited for the Before and After School Care Extended Learning Program.	Green, completed on schedule	Finished 6 months early.
Finding 2	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not maintain required documentation justifying the use of sole source procurements or the benefits of using intergovernmental cooperative purchasing agreements (ICPAs) as required by State Law, and did not ensure that ICPA-related invoice pricing agree to the ICPA.”	Blue, on track	PGCPS notified the Office of Legislative Audits of its intention to adopt a broader array of remedial steps including a detailed study of its procurement process and an overhaul of said process. Additional information to follow in the succeeding quarterly updates published here.
Finding 3		“PGCPS did not always obtain Board of Education approval for contracts and did not always document its reasons for awarding competitively bid contracts to vendors that were not deemed the most qualified or the lowest cost bidders”	Blue, on track	PGCPS notified the Office of Legislative Audits of its intention to adopt a broader array of remedial steps including a detailed study of its procurement process and an overhaul of said process. Additional information to follow in the succeeding quarterly updates published here.
Finding 4	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not establish adequate internal controls over its automated human resource and payroll system, as user capabilities were not properly limited and supervisors were tasked with routinely approving an excessive number of time records.”	Green, completed on schedule	The promised remedial work is complete. PGCPS will continue to monitor this situation in order to improve time approval assurance.
Finding 5	(Repeat)	“Critical human resources and payroll transactions were not always subject to a documented independent supervisory review”	Green, completed on schedule	This is a repeat finding which has now been addressed. This remedial work on this Finding was completed two months early.
Finding 6	(Repeat)	“Internal controls and record keeping related to Transportation Department bus driver and bus attendant payrolls were not adequate to ensure the propriety of salary payments.”	Green, completed on schedule	This was a repeat finding which has now been addressed.
Finding 7		“PGCPS lacked a policy requiring the justification or rationale for executive employee salary increases and such increases were not reported to the Board.”	Green, completed on schedule.
Finding 8	(Repeat)	“Physical Inventories of equipment were not conducted as required and access to the automated inventory records was not adequately restricted.”	Blue, on track	Remedial steps include performing an ⅓ of total property inventory each year beginning SY2020, therefore this Step will be completed by the last day of June, 2022
Finding 9	(Repeat)	“PGCPS equipment inventory records were not comprehensive or complete.”	Green, completed on schedule	All remedial steps thus far completed on time or early. The remaining remedial steps are ongoing as they require quarterly and annual reviews/inventory. Complete remediation of this finding is scheduled to occur in June, 2022.
Finding 10	(Repeat)	“The ERP and student management system databases were not configured to log certain critical security activity, nor were the ERP’s account and password controls adequate. In addition, an insecure service was enabled for the student management system database.”	Yellow, completed September 2019	This was a repeat finding which has now been addressed.
Finding 11	(Repeat)	“Thirty-five publicly accessible servers were improperly located within the internal network, intrusion detection prevention system coverage for untrusted traffic did not exist, and PGCPS network resources were not secured against improper access from contractors using remote access and high school students using school computer labs and media centers.”	Yellow, completed October 2019	As with Finding 12 (below) the PGCPS remediation plan was the subject of an OLA Auditor follow up query requesting clarification of specific remedial actions, to which PGCPS promptly responded. To date, there has been no additional request for clarification.
Finding 12		“PGCPS had not established procedures to ensure malware protection software was installed, current, and operational on all active computers and that computers running vulnerable installed software had security updates applied.”	Green, completed on schedule	As with Finding 11 (above), the PGCPS remediation plan was the subject of an OLA Auditor follow up query requesting clarification of specific remedial actions, to which PGCPS promptly responded. To date, there has been no additional request for clarification. The remedial plan requires an ongoing process of checking for obsolete machines for disposal and outdated software which must be updated.
Finding 13	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not ensure that employee access to its automated financial systems was appropriate.”	Red	Quarterly attestations for the central office will begin in the 4th Quarter of the academic year 2019-2020.
Finding 14		“PGCPS did not follow best practices for selecting pre-approved vendors for task orders and the selection process was not consistent between the construction and mechanical JOC contracts.”	Yellow, completed September 2019
Finding 15		“PGCPS did not adequately review price quotes submitted by JOC vendors selected for task order. Consequently, approved task orders contained questionable or unsupported costs.”	Yellow, completed September 2019	An enhanced process for line-by-line review of JOC contracts was established in a timely manner but the Standard Operating Procedures and accompanying document required additional refinement which took extra time to complete.
Finding 16	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not verify that guaranteed savings were achieved related to work performed under two energy performance contracts.”	Blue, on track	The remedial step depends on whether PGCPS enters an ESCO contract at which time contract-specific standards will be established before contract ratification and baselines will be established within 6 months of ratification.
Finding 17	(Repeat)	“The performance of preventive maintenance was not consistently documented and tracked for monitoring purposes.”	Green, completed on schedule	This Repeat Finding was completed in November 2019, a month earlier than the estimated date of completion.
Finding 18	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not establish adequate accountability over access to the automated fuel dispensing system.”	Red	The contractor has completed the preliminary work and we believe the automation system they have proposed will be completed and tested within the fourth quarter of SY 2019-2020.
Finding 19	(Repeat)	“PGCPS did not implement certain practices to promote more efficient use of its bus fleet.”	Yellow, completed August 2019	This is a repeat Finding which has now been addressed