001Okay, the January 5th, 2026 regular meeting of the Fairfest County School Board Audit Committee will now come to order. [snorts] Happy New Year, everyone. Great to be here with you. Uh, and we do have quorum. So, we will now move to approve the meeting minutes from the November 17th, 2025 audit committee meeting. Do I have a [snorts] motion? >> I so move. >> Thanks. And that motion reads that the audit committee approve the minutes uh from the November 17th, 2025 meeting with leave for the clerk to correct any formatting, technical or grammatical errors. Do I have a second? Uh second by um Miss St. John Cunning. All those in favor unanimous for those at the table. So next we have um item 1.03 03 which is the FY 2025 office of auditor general annual report.
002So now I call on General Co um and deputy general um Daniel Moore for item 1.03. >> Thank you uh Ryan and uh good afternoon everyone and happy new year. Uh welcome to the uh first of the year audit committee meeting and um today we have a pretty brief agenda. So we are very happy to be able to spotlight our accomplishment and achievement for the past fiscal year. So uh with that first of all I would like to thank all the audit committee members and the chairs for the continued support for the OAG work and I [snorts] also want to express my appreciation to all the OAG members. As you all know, we try to bring the full team each time for the audit committee meetings so that you can see kind of who is
003actually working behind of all the audit reports and we have worked very hard to complete our audits, inquiries and all the training programs. It truly takes a team effort to accomplish the task that delegated to us by the school board and the audit committee. And um also I would like to uh give a thank you to our hourly auditor mukta and he cannot be with us today um but he is one of the uh primary authors of the annual report. So I would like to uh give him the you know uh thank you for that and um logistically after today's presentation this annual report will be presented to the school board uh on June 23rd. So it's a little bit later um and it is because that that the uh the chairs would like to
004combine the annual report discussion together with the fiscal year 27 audit topics discussion. So um it will be around that time and we can talk more if that time it it needs to be adjusted or what. [snorts] Um so for today within this uh annual report we highlight our accomplishments over the past year over mainly our four pillars of work. That's how we normally call them. The first one is um listed on the transmitt letter and thank you if you can just stay at the yes that would be great. So the first area is risk assessment. Risk assessment a is how we identify and select audit topics. The second pillar is internal audit meaning our core function the bread and butter or in the Asian way I will call it rice and noodle. So what
005we mainly do for the comfort food I mean for the uh for the main thing for internal audit and then the C area is fraud ways and abuse hotline. So here is ensuring all the when things will not quite go the right way such as when there are concerns for misuse of funds stakeholders have a tape line to raise that concern to OAG office of auditor general. We also do a lot of outreach and education work as well. So um because we know even though uh OAG has been doing a lot of excellent work but if we do not communicate it actively with our staff or community it means that we have not done that. So together these four pillars create a holistic approach for um my office to review FCPS processes for effectiveness, efficiency
006and to ensure accountability to all the Fairfax County community members. And for those of you who are watching this meeting this afternoon, the office of auditor general reports directly to the school board and I'm on uh going to page one of this report as well as the audit committee. Um as many of you know that that independence is really um essential for the success of the office. So page one of this report highlight that um we report to the school board via the audit committee who is the um meeting today. Um and then uh on this page we also highlight the audit committee charter according to the governance manual and pages two and three of this report continue to outline the policy 1105 which is the auditor general authority and [snorts] it again emphasize the
007importance of independence as well as um on this page uh under item E it talks about audit standard and ethics. Um so for audit standard we follow the uh government uh the government uh accountability office they publish the um I bring this with me the government auditing standard and we call this as the yellow book and to me sometime a physical copy always tell a little bit more and this is the standard that the federal agency follow as well as many fed uh many state and local audit organizations follow as well. So, OAG followed the standard. And then moving on on page four, it talks more about our mission. And I have already outlined that in the beginning is that our office is to conduct independent assessment on all the ongoing FCPS processes and to
008ensure that they are working effectively, efficiently and be accountable to our community members. And then on this page we outline many of the OAG value that we uh measure our success against. So if we can go down a little bit more. So there's a table um here where we were able to get some of the benchmarking from the council of great city schools and the data that we got is quite recent is as of 2024 to 25. So when you looked at the different indicators here, you can see that that OA agate is at a more effective and efficient um level compared to generally the other school districts. And then also we are very glad to report that that we were able to complete 100% of our audit plan and then we were able to
009um have management accepted 100% of the recommendations. So here I would like to highlight as I mentioned we are independent but at the same time we have a very collaborative approach working with management. So we are very grateful that the recommendations were fully accepted. So um moving on on the page five in the beginning we also conducted um survey after each audit with our audit clients meaning with management. We ask questions based upon the eight different areas that as you can see on the screen such as if it is timely being um announced about the audit is coming up. Do we have an effective process? Do you believe that the auditors contain sufficient knowledge? So we aim at getting a higher than 90% of yes to this questions. And in fiscal year 25 we exceeded
010that um that uh that indicator to receive more than 90% on all the uh indicators that we try to measure. And then moving on we have some other uh OAG achievements on our report cards as well. And here there are a lot of wording here. Um we will go through each one of them uh in a more details in a little bit. But for here I just want to highlight two things. Um in the meantime, one is that every three years, uh OAG will also be audited. So um as a matter of fact, later this month, we will have an external peer review team coming to look at how OAG is doing our audit according to the government auditing standard. So we will be uh presenting the result in the next audit committee meeting in
011March. And then I also want to highlight that that all the um our team members cons is have the re the required certifications in doing what we do. We have certified public accountants. We have certified internal auditor, fraud examiner as well as information system auditors. Even though it sounds like a lot of alphabets but I really want to highlight that because it added the credentials to what we do so that that the community members can rely on our report. So moving on to page six is a little bit more to talk about the nuts and bolts. So first pillar of the work is the risk assessment how we identify audit topics. So we identify audit topics through a very extensive process including looking at the financial number looking at the operational risk and challenges. What
012are the internal controls checks and balances that are in place etc. And we also um listen you know to all the schoolboard and also the schoolboard meetings and then the uh work sessions. We take notes about the hot topics with the school board as well as we looked at the other K12 organization as well to see what are the common audit topics that they are looking at. And then if I can put a plug here that we are right now in the process of collecting feedback from schoolboard members and audit committee members for fiscal year 27 audit topics. So your feedback is critical to it. And on this page if we can go down a little bit more it also indicated the fiscal year 26 audit plan. So this is the plan that we are
013currently doing. Um and I want to say that that all the audits are processing on time. So moving on after risk assessment that will be the second pillar of work is internal audit. So internal audit we follow the same process every time we started with risk assessment we and then we go on for planning we have execution meaning our fieldwork reporting meaning we bring the report back to the audit committee and then maybe bringing that to the school board based upon the different types of audits and then we will also do the followup uh today we will have ammonia presented our follow-up status in a little bit after this topic so that we have a full loop cycle I and not just identify the audit findings but also have a way to follow up with
014management to ensure that all the recommendations are completing timely. Um and then moving on to page eight here is the fraud waste and abuse hotline and we are grateful for OAG to manage the fraud ways and abuse hotline on behalf of FCPS. So as part of our holistic approach, we conduct, you know, audits while we we conduct regular internal audits, but we also receiving leads or some kind of like information or tips through the hotline about what are the some of the concern or areas that we should focus more on. Last year alone, if we can scroll a little bit more down for 25, fiscal year 25, we received close to 70 cases. And then you can see the trend from 21 to 25. And then on the side it can it will also show
015you the types of cases that we received. We received the cases such as vendor related, how we carrying out a contract, how we use our assets. We also get situation about residency, procurement etc. So you can see that that there is an upward trend from 21 to 25 that we have been getting more cases. We saw a spike in 24. We believe that this trend reflects um increased awareness and comfort among employees and community members in reporting concerns. So for 24 and 25, you may ask me, hey Esther, I saw like a decrease in 25. What does it really mean to us? So my um my response will be that if we take the not related to fraud, ways and abuse cases out which is the gray bar in the middle like the 21 and
016the 13 cases then the cases number are very um comparable then we will be getting like 58 cases in 24 and then 55 cases in 25. So and again at the audit committee I want to thank all of you who have you know shared the hotline information in your newsletters or community communications and we as a office we also conducted extensive outreach to promote the hotline and online submission too as well. So I want to take this opportunity to promo again and if I can go down a little bit more down to the report there is an orange orange banner called out where it include our hotline number our email and also the online submission form too. Um while we were not able to get like a fraud you know fraud and then the corresponding
017numbers on the phone but I think that our numbers are quite easy to remember 423133. So we just hope that more people can use this hotline to offer tips to us. So with that I'm going to go through the last pillar of the work which is the outreach and education. So we have been very active in this area and I would like to highlight a few efforts. First is the audit bus. So, and I know that many of you are excited to read our newsletters which we produce on a monthly basis and um want to give a big kudos to our deputy auditor Miss Danel Moore because she's our major author and also to the rest of the team too. We many time we try to write article that a um everyone like community members
018could easily understand. So we can see that our subscribe subscriptions now is over 4,000 but as an auditor you know it's not just the subscriptions but actually who is opening the emails. So we have an other uh statistics which is right in front of you the graph is the number of audit bus newsletter emails that were opened. So we see an upward trend um to almost you know a thousand subscribers have opened our email. So it is a great things to celebrate. And then moving on, we also have other um other initiative like today the NA report our website and if we can move on to the training and education session and if we can pause here a little bit that we have been very active in providing training and over a thousand employees and
019external audit professionals have received our training. Um and also here I would like to to really thank uh Dr. to allowed us to be able to present at the leadership kickoff to have this opportunity to talk to our school-based administrator on a yearly basis and then I also want to thank our controller uh Miss Seamer and then she always give us opportunity to present at the P2P so that we can have on a yearly basis have an opportunity to talk to the finance technicians and the finance assistants which is really important. So thank you. And then um we continue to provide certified um uh continuing professional education credits through the Nasper um um mechanism. It's the National Association of State Board of of Accountancy. Something is not noted on the report. So today I try
020go on to the Nasper website. They have over 2,000 sponsors and out of the 2,000 sponsor FCPS is the only K12 education organization that is listed. So I really think that is a great accomplishment. So what this um certification allowed us to do, we are on page nine and this certification allowed us to do is to provide free education credits to all the FCPS employees especially if they have certain certification in the financial areas. then we can provide them with the certified training credits and this is especially important when we have tight budget and for all the committee members you are welcome to join our training too if I can do a quick promotion here we have one starting on Friday morning with our um Michelle Pre procurement director and then we will be co-presenting
021to share more about procurement with our staff members so moving on um and then we also host a DMV auditor group where we are uh having like a more than 20 uh local government auditors in DC, Maryland and Virginia where we exchange ideas and information and we are meeting tomorrow where we have invited the GAO the author of the yellow book to come to speak with us. So we are very proud of all this accomplishment. Last but not the least, we have the internal audit awareness month. And if I can do a quick promotion here, it will be in May. And this year we will be meeting on May 13th. And I would like to invite all of you to join us where we try, you know, to um through some entertaining or or some
022interesting way to share more about artists with our staff members. So with that, sorry I have talked a lot and now I would like to hand the time over to more uh to Danielle to just talk very briefly about internal audits. Thank you Esther. I will be providing you all with a summary of the audit results from our FY25 audits. Um if you refer to page uh 11 in the annual report, uh this provides a matrix of all of the high, moderate, and low findings for each one of these audits. And you will note that we completed six performance audits and 14 business process audits. As it relates to the six performance audits, the first audit is the procurement process audit. So the scope of this audit covered procurement processes administered by the office of
023procurement services and the vendor review process um administered in collaboration with the office of cyber security as well as the technology architecture and assessment section. Some of the findings from this audit include unalignment of policies, regulations, and guidance regarding the v vendor approval process, operational inefficiencies in vendor vendor communication and review processes um that impact the vendor solicit solicitation, excuse me, and lack of key performance indicators. Our second audit is the student disciplinary process audit. And this audit actually was exempt from disclosure. So we won't discuss um those results in the open session. The third audit was is the critical process review and this is for hiring. So during this audit we did an evaluation of the key hiring processes. Some of the challenges noted included the design of the hiring and onboarding processes that
024may lead to inconsistent application of hiring practices, loss of interest from applicants and data data data silos that disrupt workflows. Our fourth audit is the construction and renovate and renovation contracting process audit. So, the scope of this audit included the FCPS capital improvement program projects that were funded um for construction in the 2019, the 2021, and the 2023 bond referendums. We also looked at key processes and controls related to the procurement, contract monitoring, change orders, contract invoicing, and contract closeout. Some of the findings noted included uh instances of non-compliance with project contract terms and the u design and construction manual and there were several areas where improvements could be made in the FCPS con uh construction monitoring practices policies and guidelines that required an update for our next set of audit. These audits are mainly
025our audits that are school related. Um since you know we are a school division that's our kind of our bread and butter. We have three different types of school related audits. Those include the local school activity funds audit, continuous monitoring, and our business process audits. So in FY25, we can we completed the local school activity funds audit for year ending June 30th, 2025. And I'd like to note that this audit is one of those audits that are required by the Virginia code. So we look at this, we do this audit every year. So, local school activity funds are collected from students and parents and they're to be used for the purpose in which they were collected. So, this includes student fees, activity fees, and maybe something like parking fees. During our audit, OAG did not
026have any findings, but we did have three observations related to compliance. First observation was related to compliance with uh regulations. The second observation was related to cash receipts and the internal control environment. And the third object observation excuse me was related to the deposit date control weakness related to the rate planes accounting system. So basically overall out of this audit we had a we we audited a total of 202 sites. We noted exceptions of non-compliance with regulations in 73 sites and then we had no exceptions at the remaining 129 sites. And I would like to note the individual exceptions um occur at the site level did not impact the cash balance at the year end um and there were no material effect to FCPS as a division. Our other uh audit we conducted was the
027continuous monitoring. Um this is we do uh quarterly reviews um of unusual transactions for both appropriated and local school activity funds transactions. The local school activity fund transactions any exceptions noted will be included in our local school activities funds um audit. So, it's kind of like our what we use as our sample for local school activity funds as well as any appropriated transactions or uh exceptions that we know that we use that to determine if we need to conduct a business process review audit. So, as far as the continuous monitoring for um FY25, out of the 202 sites, 103 sites had no exceptions noted. 55 sites had exceptions noted in three or fewer areas. 44 sites did not have any transactions that appeared in our sample. And um and I would also like to note
028that OAG did quarterly site visits at 68 sites. And our last uh set of audits are our business process audits. We conducted 14 business process audits in FY25 which included 13 schools and one department. So the business process audits are a deep deeper dive. These are ad hoc audits that are a deeper dive. We usually conduct these audits due to change in management like the finance tech or the principal. um also based on the outcome of any continuous monitoring um and other necessaries another uh areas that are deemed necessary. Mo mainly the findings related to the business process audits are the purchasing process timeliness of payments um also the timeliness of completing bank reconciliations and the non-bank reconciliations which may be your your FMR your financial management report um also we have findings related to
029outstanding department deposits and the sufficiency of documentation and I would like to note that for these audits we we require um management response for any risk level moderate or higher. So that would be a moderate or a high risk finding. Um and we do follow up on those in a quart in a quarterly basis as well as we we follow up on all of the findings for our our performance audits which like I mentioned is done on a quarterly basis and we report out to the audit committee. Um and Moya will be talking a little bit later about that. Um but as of for FY25 OAG did note that we had 45 new recommendations excuse me for the audit performed and reported 30 of those recommendations closed and as of July 31 29 recommendations from
030the current and prior years remain outstanding and so some of those outstanding um recommendations were related to the FY25 food and nutritional services audit the FY20 I'm excuse me FY24 food and nutrition and services audit, the FY25 procurement process audit, FY25 critical process review for hiring, and the FY25 construction and renovation contracting process audit. And and as I mentioned, Moa will be giving an update of those items as of October 31. And then if we could refer to the appendex page, I would like to provide you guys, this is just a little handy dandy place where you can go and find important information about our office so that we have link links provided that can link you to all of those different areas. So now I would like to time hand the time back to
031Brian. >> Wonderful. Well, thank you both for that very thorough report. [clears throat] So um first I'll turn it over to colleagues if you have any questions or comments. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, happy new year and thanks for the presentation. I had a few questions. A some of the questions may be very trivial, but that's that's basically based upon out of my ignorance. So, please forgive me. So Jan, so usually a when you present annual report timeline wise, is that is that usually January of the following calendar year? Is that like a January 2026 for something that ended in June 30th of the prior year is basically this. >> May May I answer one by one? Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you for the question, Mr. Moon. So um yes, this is the stand
032and let me just explain a little bit if I may. It may sounds a little bit late because the cuto off should be on June and why we present in January of the following year. It is mainly because of one of the audit which is the local school activity fund audit. Normally we can only concluded that in November because that audit we need to look at the year end balance for June 30th. So it only occur afterwards. It it makes sense. So we normally would like to kind of summarize all the results in one time. Um in the past we did um present in December and or January. This year is just because we uh try to make it more efficient with the meetings. We meet every other month. So that's why we do it
033in January if it makes sense. >> Okay. Yeah, I thought you know looking at just a doing it 6 months after the end of the fiscal year you know you know to a general public might seem a little delay might have been involved. uh you know that could be the impression to people and especially if I I undershoot you correctly uh this presentation to the entire board is not going to occur until June of this year which is almost a year after the end of the fiscal year and I guess you know question should go to uh perhaps to our chairman in of the board. Uh with that in mind, you think by the time this gets presented to the full board, some of the information can date uh included in the report as of
034a certain date. Do you think those will be updated? Some of for example like o these are numbers as of October 31. Uh will that be updated if this is not going to be presented to the board on? >> We can do that definitely Mr. Moon. And I think we um when we present to the board in June, we would also like to focus on our risk assessment effort for fiscal year 27 topics. So I think it will provide a very um like an insightful if we can update some of the numbers to really support why we select the topics, right? Because like I mentioned at the end of the day, we want to provide a holistic approach. So we can certainly update some of the relevant information so that the board can make a
035more informed decision to decide what fiscal year 27 audit topics to focus on. So we can certainly do that. >> Okay. And and and I don't want to sound too nitpicking, but uh I'm going to be nitpicking on this one. On page five, you said yes to yes responses to yes responses higher than 90% for all different eight eight different categories. Uh higher than does not include equal to correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. I think that's >> I got it. So next time I should say equal or higher than 90%. Yeah. Got it. >> Okay. Thank you. We will correct that. We can just update that. >> Thank you. and and and also a on page four I I have to ask these questions because uh I'm glad to see 100% of completion of audit
036plan great congratulations and 100% of recommendations being accepted by management that's great but my question go to this when there is a a difference between a council of a grade city scores for [clears throat] percentage of completion 70% versus 100%. That's a huge discrepancy. So we are doing far better than far better than uh average of counselor of gray city scores. A question that's begging is could he have given you more to do? I mean that's that's the question coming to me. You are able to complete 100% of all because the workload was light. I mean it's a very unfair very unfair because you all work hard and you got this done and and accolades compliments go to that but again as as a policy maker whether >> when I see that huge difference between
037average for that versus how we perform as a could he again could he have given you should he have given you more >> great question and it's always as oag G we always aim as effectiveness and efficiency right because if we don't have that how could we audit the other processes so this is a a great question and I I don't really know what prevents the other K12 organization to be not able to meet 100% and you really give me a very good homework to go back to the great council of great city schools and to understand a little bit more about what what drive at the 70%. But we also do a lot of benchmarking, right? Like through the risk assessment process, we actually looked at how and what types of audits the other
038K12 organization that they complete because they do publish their audit plans. They may not publish their audit reports as transparent as maybe because of the state requirements etc. But when we looked at the audit plan, we are very comparable in in terms of the workload with the other K12 organizations and some I can tell you because I did go to audit the other internal audit office through the peer review program. Some of them they may still be just focusing on school audits. Some, not all, right? And of course there are some that that they are very above and beyond too, right? to look at a lot of the processes but at the same time they have a much bigger shops than OAG here. So I think again for me the takeaway is that I will
039go back and find out what are the major reason for the other school that who self-reported they said they only met 70%. And why we can meet at 100%. Is it because we don't have enough? We can assort more work for the district or because some issues that the other audit shops have and we don't have and I can bring it back after I find out more. >> Thank you. But thank you. I mean I'm asking you that question uh along with my congratulations and compliments to the fact that you've been able to accomplish everything that the school board has directed your office to accomplish. But when I also at the same time see year after year it's 100%. Great. But also backs the question whether we should have could have given you more. And
040that same thing goes to the next line which is uh maybe there isn't much a difference between 98 and 100%. But when you have 100% year after year our management accepting all your recommendations are they accepting your recommendations because your recommend your recommendations are all fair reasonable excellent and should accept or maybe this goes to a doctor as well is your recommendations are so easy to do there's nothing tough nothing challenging so we'll just accept them. >> May I comment and then I also would like to defer to management if they would also you know share their inputs as well. So from my perspective um and again this is a great question right why I think normally speaking we really strive at 100% Mr. We try to make longlasting change to a system, right? So
041you have to be collaborative and for OAG we are very cautious to make recommendations that at the risk level. So for example if we see something is not working like the regulations and policy they haven't been updated with the actual um reality on the ground then we would say hey the in the policy and regulations need to be updated. We try to make it high level so management can have flexibility to think about how to really remediate the risk. So we don't really say management you have to do ABCDE E FG like very plain like you you can only do this in order to remediate the risk because there are many different ways right to able to achieve the same goal. So we try to give flexibility to management so that that they can also
042meet remediate the risk or challenges but they have more flexibility about how to do it. Um, and that's how we kind of like on the same I mean I don't know if Danell you have more to add but at the same time I want to say when you looked at our neighboring district they also get 98%. So I really believe that in the industry this is the same methodology that we have been using and I don't know if anyone other maybe our community members since you may be working with auditors too kind of do you have any thoughts on that but that's my my thinking too was that question that >> no I would just wanted to add like during the audit process we try to be collaborative with management to make sure that we
043are recommending things that are feasible that can be that can be Um so that is like a collaborative process to work with management. Um these are our findings and what recommendations need to be implemented. But like Esther mentioned we don't really get to the specifics. It's more at a general level. >> You know I don't I don't want to you know I don't want to put a words into your mouth but uh hopefully you're not saying that you are only giving them what they can do. No, not only giving them what they can do, but we're working through the process to make sure that what we're recommending is what we're recommending is feasible to be done. >> Okay. Uh let me ask you this question uh uh because I'll just get it out uh to
044share with you a a you know having a good collaborative working relationship is one thing. Great. But do you also believe in healthy tension between OA and management? >> Um do you mind to uh what intention again? Sorry. >> Healthy tension between >> healthy in healthy Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about that. >> Management. >> We um are they are they are they [clears throat] uh uh Go ahead. I just lost a word. Um we have some management here and I would encourage them they can also share their thoughts too. Um but I do believe there are a lot of healthy discussion throughout the audit >> discussion >> a lot of that if um what we try to do right again the goal for internal audit that particular pillar of work
045Mr. moon is we want to be able to make recommendations to management and then can make a longlasting impact to the process. That's the main goal right so we at the same time we know that there are restrictions too right because of the budget or people we know that that we try to operate as best as we can. [snorts] So when we make recommendations again we are very aligned with industry 100% and 98% is we want to be able to make recommendations that is helpful but at the same time we are independent and I think maybe that's kind of the point that we we we need to make sure and we are not trying to make a recommendation just for the sake of management will accept that's never is the intention and we would never
046do that because that's totally against the yellow book. Um, so I just want to make sure that that is for the record and I don't know if management wants to add anything or is it on in line with what you think. >> I think uh there's nothing we would add to that. Thank you. >> One last question. I think this is something that I had asked previously uh uh but I I want to ask again on page number eight. We see these numbers uh you know over the years uh how do board members determine any trend any numbers is a good number. You you said, "Oh, numbers going up because perhaps people are feeling more comfortable in reporting potential abuses, waste to your office or it could be there might have been more and more
047and more abuse and waste incidences incidents and that is why they are being reported. So as a policy maker, as a schoolboard member, how do I know whether these numbers mean anything? What what tools could I use as a committee member or school member to see gosh we seem to be having problems here? >> And thank you for the question because I I kind of anticipate that it may be a question. So within the report, we actually try to address that Mr. Moon and the audit committee members. So if the clerk can go a little bit uh down just uh I we included two paragraph. Yeah, here is good uh under the graph. Right. So we want to kind of have the message our messaging to you all is this. The office cannot control the
048volume, right? And the types of cases that we receive because it's like a cris it's not a crystal ball. Why don't I say that? The more the better, right? because we always want to find all the needle in the hay stack if possible instead of we just try to find them. It's impossible. But at the same time, we maintains a holistic program. We have the numbers and we really think that we need to report it because we want you all to know about the case load so that you know how we spend the time. But in terms of what are good number or numbers to celebrate or numbers too low and it can be higher I could not give a conclusive answers. Um and I just want to be honest about that to you all.
049I I I cannot say what number is good or bad. But before this meeting, I did do a lot of um internet search in the public space and talk to my fellow internal auditors or yeah in the local local government uh space that only very minimum number they do publicize it in the public domain and one is actually in Virginia and then they the cases number that they got is 60 for the whole city and and again it's just one data point and I'm not saying that that this is what we should be relied upon. But based upon what I see and based upon my verbal conversation with the other audit shop, I do believe that we have a very healthy system. I do not believe that it is an um indicator that FCPS is
050having more challenges because of the uptakes. I see this as we have been doing a lot of outreach to our community members and also to our staff members especially staff members quarterly training and every time we have opportunities is to let them know that hey this is something available for you you are our eyes and ears I we would really encourage you to come up before a problem become a problem so um and I apologize Mr. when I could not give you you know the full extent of explanation but this is what we think >> I would love to have you offline discussion about this sometime uh with that on January 9th the presentation and training you will refer to what time is that >> it is uh from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And
051we have uh right now we have 100 almost 150 employee sign up option is an option. >> It's in person >> virtual or virtual >> you know the bold me bold we have a bold meeting the night before which may go until 2:00 a.m. >> So if sorry I should yeah if you don't see any school board member that's the >> okay so next time. Thank you. Sorry about the scheduling but I will bear that in mind. >> Thank you. >> Okay Miss St. Junk Honey. >> So, f first of all, thank you for all the work that you've done and for this report. Um, I'm just going to piggyback on the uh numbers of um reported um incidents that you guys are getting to the fraud, waste, and abuse line. And and I'm glad
052to see that there's an increase. Um just just to ask you like do you see any specific trends on something that we should really be focusing on that that is coming in and then the other question I'm going going to ask you because there is a large number that gray bar is very large about not related to fraud waste and abuse and if you could give us some examples of what those might be and how they are treated. So something comes in that is not related to fraud, waste, and abuse and say that I am a person that makes that complaint and you're not going to investigate it, then how how is that handled? I'm just trying to figure out how the general public if this is coming in from a parent, you know, and
053thank you Marcia for the questions. And um so in terms of how like the numbers like I explained I do believe that this is a very healthy you know trend that we really try to publicize this method. Um and for the not related to fraud ways and bills when we got those cases I will give some examples in a little bit but when we got those situation we really do try our best to refer the claimants through the right media and one of which we use very often is the office of bus or if they ask some you know policy or regulations related questions we will try to refer them to the right departments or offices. Um some of the questions if I may mention um some of them are maybe students related student like
054generally speaking related and has no impact on fraud waste and abuse. Um and and some some of them is totally irrelevant. Um but we do take lock of that. Um and some of them they may mention oh um claim about administration or the board have not been timely reporting to email and then people will start using very strong terms and which is not the case. We we all know that um and some of them are related like let's say student disciplinary record and has nothing you know to with what we do um and and and and some of them like um let me just maybe raise >> I mean I think that's good I think that gives gives everybody a good um idea and I think that for reporting purposes to give you guys the
055credit because when you say it's not related to fraud, waste, and abuse. The way you have it up there, it looks like it's just kind of brushed away. And I I really think you should put h referrals to because not related to it gives you credit because that's work. That's work you have to do to figure out where it goes to. And I think you need to get credit for like of the 13 that came in this year, you had to refer those 13 to the appropriate offices. And I think that you need to get credit for that because the way that it's documented, it it doesn't look like that. And so I want you to get the credit that you guys deserve. Um on I do remember like in terms of the question of
056did you not have enough work. Uh I I do recall that last year you were hiring people and needed more overtime. Did was it last year that you needed some some extra support? >> Yes. And thank you for uh raising that. Yes. Last year we asked for more one-time money to hire hourly auditors. uh for example that MUT he helped us to put this together and help us for peer review etc. Okay. So, if you needed that extra support, that meant that you had the work to justify it. Is that correct? Okay. I just I just remember that and I just wanted to make sure that I was remembering correctly. >> Thank you. Um the other thing that I want to go to is in which you and I have discussed uh a lot um
057and is something that in terms of the local school funding um the uh let me get to where my question was here. Uh so in terms of and we've discussed this in terms of the local school activity funds and the issues we have with those schools and you have found some of those issues. Can we is there a way to weed out is are these problems systemic or are they specific to certain schools? Um number one that's my first question. And then my second question is has has one of the recommendations going to those local school activity funds been like increased training support for the finance tax from K through 12. >> Thank you. And I can maybe address the first comment and I I don't know if uh Sema uh if you would like
058to address the training comment for our finance professional at school. So for the first comment about do we see a systemic trend uh for for example or for a certain school for the local school activity fund audit we try to focus on the district um >> right is there like throughout like our local school activity funds like is there a systemic like all the schools are having the same issue? >> Um I would say yes and no. Um generally speaking we do not find really big key issues on local school activity fund but at the same time we need to focus that we are focusing on the financial side mainly. um we do not see you know strong and like really high level find so that's why we don't have findings but we did find
059um like some comments observations and maybe Danielle you can speak a little bit about the types of things that we see >> um yes so a lot of things we see are related to the procurement process like maybe not having an approval or a PO before making the purchase um bank reconciliations maybe being out of balance or not completing did it in a timely manner. Um so those sort of things. So while we may have them across the schools, it may be for different reasons why those things are not being done. Okay. So what we tend to see is that um there's a approximately 20% vacancy rate and many of the the triggers for why OAG goes out and does audits is new principal, new AA, new financial tech and we tend to see a
060lot of the problem areas with the new personnel coming on board. The learning curve is very steep. It takes a good year to get comfortable with all the systems, all the policies, regulations, yes, all the codes. And what we try to do on the training aspect is we push heavy on the training. We have been doing that over the last two years. Um we have um with Dr. Reed's support actually have a two-year training plan. So when a new FT or AA starts they actually have a training plan that they go to for two years in a row with supportive training. We have implemented trainings where the principal with their AA or FT go together because that gives more of a collaborative collaborative training and we've done many of those and then we've got videos.
061We're really trying to push hard on the training. Thank you. I I appreciate that because I know that that's been a reoccurring problem and I know it is a very steep learning curve and we lose new hires because they feel overwhelmed. >> Great. Um Nette, >> um going back to the the level of calls and emails that come into your office to investigate, I I know Mr. Moon's as actually asked this question a couple times. So I think some of it when you look at it is somewhat intuitive like um there was a big increase relatively speaking on residency questions but there's also been over the last couple years maybe I don't know one or two articles in the paper about residency issues. So that that sort of makes sense and I think it's good
062to show the total amount of volume that's coming in on the inquiries, but could you also maybe show because this is every inquiry, correct? Could you also maybe show how many of those inquiries have actually resulted in some sort of a a finding because that I think is maybe a a not necessarily a better way of looking at it but a different way of looking at it that might kind of address Mr. Moon's question on why you know why is this really important because yes you know as you publicize it you're going to get more information you know information inquiries and that's good but are those actually substantive inquiries? Thank you Nette. Um great question. Um and I think great mind think alike too that we started to include the um credibility numbers in the
063last audit committee meeting that we try to share not exactly credible what is the term that I use I think it's report to the audit committee something along that line. So they are cases that either they are credible or they may be related you know to somehow to the board and the um or leadership team or some other reasons or they may need like a significant improvement is in processes. So we have a number included per year. We haven't included it here. It's just um because we don't want to confuse a reader since it will need more conversation about that. But thinking about it, we can certainly include a link to that particular document here where we include the number of um reportable cases. I think I remember I used that term reportable to audit
064committee so that that um everyone the community members can have a fuller picture to understand in addition to the universe how many of them may have more uh can can give us more information on Okay, great. Um, seeing nothing further, um, let's move on to item uh, number 1.04, which is audit follow-up, and I believe uh, Mona is going to present. >> Thank you, Ryan. I'll be presenting the audit recommendation followup as of October 31. As you can see on the summary table on page two, we currently have five audits with open recommendations and we're I'm sorry, I'm gonna wait a little bit. Sorry. Can go to page two, please. So, as you can see on the summary table on page two, we currently have five audits with open recommendations and we're able to close
06511 this period. Starting with item one on page three, food and nutrition services or FNS we the two recommendation related related to benchmarking and updating FNS or food and nutrition services manual are in progress and not due as of October 31. Essentially FNS or food and nutrition services office is awaiting the implementation of their new nutrition software to fully address these two recommendation. Then moving on to page four, the procurement process audit. OAG verified and closed two recommendation this period. We verified that regulation 5012 was updated to include a cooper cooperative as a method of procurement. We also verified that department of information technology or the has shifted to a riskbased technology process for their vendor and software selection. Regarding the four outstanding remaining ite remaining recommendation, they're in progress per management. The completion of
066these recommendation is pending the final update of regulations and guideline as well as the implementation of the new audit software which is expected to fully be operated operated by the end of this month. Then moving on to page seven, the hiring audit. We've seen a lot of um great progress in this area. We closed six recommendation where we verified that human resources and the employee service and operation office have implemented the employee the boarding I'm sorry the inboarding workflow. U they have established or developed the new screening procedure from principal hiring. They also have identified milestone and they are sources for the hiring and the monitoring process. On page eight, we have listed the five recommendation for the hiring audit. They're outstanding, but they're not due as of October 31st. Then moving to our last
067updates on page nine, which is related to the construction and renovation audit. uh we conducted this audit in 2025. Design and construction department has made a lot of progress since then. To give you to give you some like a bit of context, um one of our recommendation involve the submitter process. So think of a submitter process as a formal check and approve step where the contractor provides or submit the exact specification and price codes for materials. then FCPS or DNC here in specifically must review must review approve the submittals and then return it to the contractor so they are able to um procure the materials and start with the project. So [snorts] in the past we found that these submittals were not always being returned to the contractor in a timely manner which has caused
068FCPS to pay for um some material prices that has increases from the first submitt to the time that they review and return the subural. So to address this design and construction office has now implemented an automated reminders within their project management software. These reminders are alert. They're sent to project team members to ensure those submarros are returned and submitted back to the contractor in a timely manner. And then for the second recommendation, we address the change order approval um in the context of when a school board approval is required. In the past, the dollar amount threshold for school pro school board approving change orders were not clear. We have now verified that DNC has updated its manual to align with the code of Virginia requirements to where a school board is required for change orders.
069And the last recommendation, we verified that progress meetings between FCPS and the contractors are now required throughout all the project phases including the last the very last close out phase. Also within this audit, we have nine recommendations that are outstanding but not due as of October 31st. Uh our next audit followup as of January will be presented at the Marsh audit committee meeting. And with that um that's the end of our a presentation for audit recommendation followup. I'll hand it back to Ryan. >> Thank you Monia. Um uh at this point I just want to ask um our administration colleagues if they have any feedback on any of these. >> Not really. I think it was clearly stated. >> Okay. Um uh board colleagues and committee members, do you have any questions on this one?
070>> Okay. Seeing nothing um I think we can move to adjourn uh the meeting. appropriately. Um, so the public meeting is now recessed at 5:01 p.m. and the board will now meet in closed meeting. Um, so then do it now. Okay. Audit committee will now make a motion on January 5th, 2026 to go into the closed meeting to one discuss personnel matters pursuant to section 2.2 237 11. Okay. >> I think >> to one discuss personal matters looks the same uh pursu pursuant to section 2.23711 A1 of the code of Virginia and two um security matters pursuant to section 2.23711 A19 and three consult with legal counsel regarding specific matters concerning the provision of legal advice by such council pursuant to section 2.2 23711 A7 and A8 of the code of Virginia specifically A student
071discipline b c cyber security and c personnel matters. Do I have a motion moved by Mr. Moon seconded by uh Mr. McDaniel all those in favor? Motion is unanimous for those at the table. Uh we are now in close meeting. Thank you.