Auditors flag bank‑reconciliation and controls weaknesses at several universities, urge follow‑up

Auditors for the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee reported Aug. 14 that the University System audit included two formal recommendations, chiefly insufficient monitoring of service organizations and several campuses' failure to perform timely bank reconciliations.

Why it matters: auditors said unreconciled bank balances and missing monthly reconciliations raise the risk of billing errors, misstated financial reports and delayed detection of mistakes. The issue also affects public confidence in stewardship of institution funds.

What auditors found: the Office of the State Auditor issued an unmodified opinion for the university system finances but included two audit recommendations in the report. Auditors said the University of North Dakota lacked sufficient monitoring of a service organization used to process student refunds and that UND, Williston State College and Dickinson State University had unreconciled differences in bank reconciliations during the audit period.

Campuses respond: University of North Dakota controller Sharon Leland told the committee that two bank accounts were unreconciled at June 30, 2024 but said UND had corrected the difference by June 30, 2025 and was fully staffed in treasury operations. "We reconcile every transaction to the bank account, and all those bank accounts were reconciled as of 06/30/2025 except for 2 of them. And we have, corrected that issue as of 06/30/25," Leland said.

Williston State College’s vice president of business services, Deborah Halverson, said Williston engaged UND under a memorandum of understanding to research, document and fix reconciliation problems; Williston wrote off an unreconciled balance of about $199,000 dating from earlier years and reported it now reconciles monthly. Dickinson State CFO Leslie Whitstalk said turnover in financial leadership contributed to problems; DSU contracted outside help and reported bank reconciliations are now "very, very, very clean."

System‑level actions: the university system office said it supports shared‑services approaches, regular controller meetings and systemwide training to reduce risk when smaller campuses lose key staff. Auditors said they will follow up in future audits to confirm corrective action.

Next steps: the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee asked the auditor and system office to update the committee at its next meeting on whether the recommended controls and third‑party monitoring steps have been implemented across campuses.