Internal audit reports remediation plans, flags repeat findings and outlines staffing plan

Brian Green, director of internal review, gave the committee a status update on completed and in-progress audits and described recent remediation activity at the May 27 meeting. Green said the internal-audit office submitted remediation plans for Southern and Eastern in May to legislative leadership and the auditors of public account in compliance with Public Act 25-147, and that each remediation plan lists a named person or department responsible for corrective actions so the system can track progress.

Green told the committee that some repeat findings persist systemwide, particularly in purchase-order execution and asset management; he cited Charter Oak's repeat findings (one dating to 2015 on purchase orders and one to 2017 on asset management) as examples. "With a system as vast as we are, tracking those assets can be sometimes like cat wrangling," Green said, explaining that causes range from turnover to COVID-era disruptions and the complexity of system reorganization.

To improve oversight, the revised charter directs the committee to monitor remedial progress through a dashboard. Chair Don Williams and Green said the dashboard will show aging, ownership and status of findings and will be reported at each audit committee meeting.

Green and Chief Compliance Officer Cameron Lon also outlined staffing needs. Green said the director position began with zero staff and presented a conservative multi-year staffing plan; Cameron described recent growth in compliance (from zero to five staff) and four committed new lines, including a full-time data-privacy officer. The committee heard that an assistant director of internal audit position has been posted and that CT State will initially fund two additional internal-audit positions to accelerate audits at that institution.

Regents asked staff to prepare a draft staffing proposal for the committee to review and, if approved, recommend to the finance committee for inclusion in the next budget cycle.