Audit Objective
Did Rochester Prep Charter School 3 (School) officials appropriately track, inventory and safeguard information technology (IT) assets acquired or in use during the audit period?
Audit Period
July 1, 2023 – March 13, 2025
Understanding the Program
Schools purchase a wide variety of IT equipment, such as interactive displays and desktop computers, as well as highly portable items, such as monitors, laptops and tablets. These assets can make up a significant portion of a school’s IT asset inventory, in both value and quantity. The cost of the School’s IT assets purchased from July 1, 2023 through August 31, 2024 totaled approximately $248,500.
The School Board (Board) contracted with a management company (Company) to provide management services. The contract states the Company will facilitate the School’s procurement of IT assets and services integral to the School’s operation.
The Company’s Regional Superintendent of Operations (Regional Superintendent) and Senior Director of IT, Operations and Product Management (IT Director) oversee the School’s IT operations. The Company contracts with a managed service provider to provide IT support and services to the School. The School’s Directors of Operations supervise the special project managers, for the respective middle or elementary school, who can order IT assets and are responsible for receiving the IT assets at the School. The Regional Superintendent, IT Director, managed service provider, Directors of Operations and special project managers maintain inventory records.
Audit Summary
School officials did not ensure that Company employees maintained complete, accurate and detailed inventory records for all IT assets. The Regional Superintendent, IT Director, managed service provider, Directors of Operations and special project managers maintained inventory records containing incomplete and inconsistent information. The School’s written agreement with the Company did not explicitly state who was responsible for the inventory of IT assets. Although the Board adopted a policy that required Company employees and the managed service provider to maintain inventory records and an annual inventory for IT assets purchased with federal funds, the Board did not adopt a comprehensive written policy for managing all IT assets. While the Regional Superintendent, a Director of Operations and a special projects manager told us that the School follows the Company’s written policies and procedures neither the Board’s nor the Company’s policy provided detailed guidance for maintaining inventory records for other IT assets, such as those that the Directors of Operations or special project managers purchased directly with other funds.
The School’s inventory records did not include all IT assets and no records contained adequate information to sufficiently track or identify the School’s IT assets, because the records were incomplete or included inaccurate information and did not contain certain asset-identifying information, such as an asset’s serial number, make and model, location, employee or student assigned, acquisition date, cost and disposal date. In addition, School officials did not conduct annual physical inventories of all IT assets or ensure IT assets were stored in areas with adequate physical safeguards.
The lack of adequate inventory records, physical safeguards and comprehensive annual physical inventories exposes IT assets to loss, theft or misuse. During our physical School walkthrough, School officials were unable to locate 22 of 47 IT assets tested, including Chromebooks, laptops and iPads, costing approximately $12,800.
The report includes six recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the School’s IT asset management practices. School officials generally agreed with our recommendations, and their response is included in Appendix B.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC) authority as set forth in Section 2854 of the New York State Education Law, as amended by Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2014. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. We encourage the Board to prepare a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the recommendations in this report and forward it to our office within 90 days. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review.