Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 192]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1954]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

189

ciation, which handle their own funds under University supervision. This situation increases the complexity of the accounts and reports, and the University's system is designed to recognize this condition. The report recommends that steps be taken to improve the coordination between the records of the University and those of the State Auditor's Office. Auditor Hodge has suggested a joint study of this problem, and we will be glad to cooperate in such a study. A study for desired improvements should use the University's records as a basis for more frequent reports and information to the Auditor and not to build up an elaborate duplicate accounting system in the Auditor's Office.

No action was taken, or required, on these reports. They are included in the minutes of today's meeting as a matter of public record.

Report of Examination and Survey July 1, 1952, to June 30, 1953

HONORABLE ORVILLE E. HODGE

Auditor of Public Accounts State of Illinois Springfield, Illinois

DEAR S I R :

In accordance with your instructions, we have conducted an examination and survey of certain records of expenditures and income of the University of Illinois and we herewith submit a report of the examination and survey. A regular audit of the University is performed annually by a firm of certified public accountants appointed by the University's Board of Trustees. An audit report was completed by Haskins and Sells for the year ending June 30, 1953. We wish to state that our examination and survey was not directed toward duplicating the work of Haskins and Sells. Our primary object during the course of this examination and survey was to assemble a report which would account in detail for receipts and disbursements of State, Federal government and other monies in selected departments and activities of the University. A principle followed in the presentation of data in the accompanying exhibits and schedules differs from the accounting principles adopted by the University. Some receipts or disbursements transferred from one fund or account to another fund or account are stated as receipts or disbursements in both funds or accounts in exhibits and schedules in this report. In the University's records and reports such transactions may be accounted for as a deduction from receipts of the fund or account from which transferred and a receipt of the fund or account to which transferred; transfers of disbursements may be treated correspondingly in the University's accounts. The principle herein adopted results in an over-statement of total receipts and disbursements; however, we are concerned with stating the flow of dollars and cents through particular accounts. W e deem this manner of presenting the accounting data on the activity in funds and accounts to be the most intelligible to readers, untrained in accounting and unfamiliar with the complex accounting system of the University. We now wish to call attention briefly to the vast difference in accounting methods employed by the University and by the State of Illinois in accounting !or cash receipts and disbursements. Some of the following comments are repeated in a following part of this report where we have made recommendations and suggestions for improving coordination of accounting records in the University and the State of Illinois. Records of Receipts and Disbursements Cash receipts, when recorded by the University, are itemized in detail as shown by Schedule A - i , but when the same cash is forwarded to the State for deposit into the University Income Fund, only a letter of transmittal as shown in Schedule A-2 is forwarded. Cash disbursements are shown on the University's records in detail and distributed to the various departments, etc., being charged, while in the State's records the disbursements are deducted from appropriation accounts, i.e., contractual services, commodities, equipment, etc.