Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices financial-compliance for the two fiscal years ended ...

32 Pages·1996·0.6 MB·English

by  Montana. Legislature. Legislative Audit Division

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353.9786
L72CPP
2006
Legislative Audit Division
StateofMontana
ReporttotheLegislature
November2006 Finaiicial-Compliaiice Audit
For the Two Fiscal Years Ended June 30, 2006
Office of the Commissioner of
Political Practices
ThisreportcontainstworecommendationsdirectedtotheOfficeofthe
CommissionerofPoliticalPractices. Recommendationsaddressedinthis
reportarerelatedto:
AccountingforMulti-YearRevenues
RecordingofanIntangibleAsset
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FINANCIAL-COMPLIANCEAUDITS
Financial-complianceauditsareconductedbytheLegislativeAuditDivisiontodetermineifan
agency'sfinancialoperationsareproperlyconducted,thefinancialreportsarepresentedfairly,
andtheagencyhascompliedwithapplicablelawsandregulations. Inperformingtheauditwork,
theauditstaffusesstandardssetforthbytheAmericanInstituteofCertifiedPubHcAccountants
andtheUnitedStatesGovernmentAccountabilityOffice. Financial-complianceauditstaff
membersholddegreeswithanemphasisinaccounting. MoststaffmembersholdCertifiedPublic
Accountant(CPA)certificates.
GovernmentAuditingStandards,theSingleAuditActAmendmentsof1996and0MBCircular
A-133 requiretheauditortoissuecertainfinancial,internalcontrol,andcompliancereports. This
mdividualagencyauditreportisnotintendedtocomplywiththesereportingrequirementsandis
thereforenotintendedfordistributiontofederalgrantoragencies. TheLegislativeAuditDivision
issuesastatewidebiennialSingleAuditReportwhichcomplieswiththeabovereporting
requirements. TheSingleAuditReportforthetwofiscalyearsendedJune30,2007,willbe
issuedbyMarch31,2008. TheSingleAuditReportforthetwofiscalyearsendedJune30,2005,
wasissuedonMarch6,2006. CopiesoftheSingleAuditReportcanbeobtainedbycontacting:
SingleAuditCoordinator LegislativeAuditDivision
OfficeofBudgetandProgramPlanning Room160,StateCapitol
StateCapitol POBox201705
HelenaMT 59620 HelenaMT 59620-1705
Phone[phone]
MEMBERSOFTHELEGISLATIVEAUDITCOMMITTEE
SenatorJoeBalyeat,ViceChair RepresentativeDeeBrown
SenatorJohnBrueggeman RepresentativeHalJacobson
SenatorJimElliott RepresentativeChristineKaufinann
SenatorDanHarrington RepresentativeScottMendenhall
SenatorLyndaMoss RepresentativeJohnMusgrove,Chair
SenatorCoreyStapleton RepresentativeJannaTaylor
LEGISLATIVE AUDITDIVISION
ScottA. Seacat,LegislativeAuditor DeputyLegislativeAuditors:
ToriHunthausen, JamesGillett
ChiefDeputyLegislativeAuditor JimPellegrini
November2006
TheLegislativeAuditCommittee
oftheMontanaStateLegislature:
Thisisourfinancial-complianceauditreportontheOfficeoftheCommissionerofPolitical
PracticesforthetwofiscalyearsendedJune30,2006. Ourreportcontainstworecommendations
relatedtocomplyingwithstateaccountingpolicy. Theoffice'swrittenresponsetotheaudit
recommendationsisincludedinthebackofthereportonpageB-3.
WethanktheCommissionerandhisstafffortheirassistanceandcooperationduringtheaudit.
Scottfi. Seacat
LegislativeAuditor
Room160•StateCapitolBuilding POBox201705 Helena,MT-59620-1705
Phone[phone] FAX[phone]•[email protected]
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Montana State Library
http://www.archive.org/details/officeofcommissi2006mont
Legislative Audit Division
Financial-Compliance Audit
For the Two Fiscal Years EndedJune 30, 2006
Office of the Commissioner of
Political Practices
Membersoftheauditstaffinvolvedinthisauditwere
JeaneCarstensen-GarrettandDelsiPlummer.

1
Table ofContents
AppointedandAdministrativeOfficials ii
ReportSummary S-1
Introduction 1
Introduction 1
Background 1
PriorAuditRecommendations 2
FindingsandRecommendations 3
AccountingforMulti-YearLicensesandPermitsRevenues 3
RecordingofanIntangibleAsset 4
IndependentAuditor'sReport&OfficeFinancialSchedules A-1
IndependentAuditor'sReport A-3
ScheduleofChangesinFundBalances
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2006 A-5
ScheduleofChangesinFundBalances
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2005 A-6
ScheduleofTotalRevenues&Transfers-In
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2006 A-7
ScheduleofTotalRevenues&Transfers-In
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2005 A-8
ScheduleofTotalExpenditures&Transfers-Out
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2006 A-9
ScheduleofTotalExpenditures&Transfers-Out
FortheFiscalYearEndedJune30,2005 A-10
NotestotheFinancial Schedules A-1
OfficeResponse ^'1
OfficeoftheCommissionerofPoliticalPractices B-3
Pagei
Appointed and Administrative Officials
Officeofthe Term
Commissionerof
PoliticalPractices GordonHiggins,Commissioner January 1,2005-August4,2006
DennisUnsworth,Commissioner September5,2006-December31,2010
OfficeAdministrative
Official DulcyL.Hubbert,ProgramSupervisor
Foradditionalinformationcontact:
DermisUnsworth,CommissionerofPoliticalPractices
POBox202401
HelenaMT 59620-2401
Phone: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
Report Summary
Officeofthe ThisauditreportistheresuUofourfinancial-complianceauditofthe
CommissionerofPolitical OfficeoftheCommissionerofPoliticalPractices(office)forthetwo
Practices fiscalyearsendedJune30,2006. Thisreportcontainstwo
recommendationsdirectedtotheofficerelatedtoaccountingfor
multi-yearlicenseandpermitrevenuesandtherecordingofan
intangibleasset.
Weissuedanunqualifiedopiniononthefinancialschedules
containedinthisreport. Thismeansthereadercanrelyonthe
informationpresentedinthefmancialschedules,aswellasthe
supportingdataonthestate'saccountingsystem.
Thelistingbelowservesasameansofsummarizingthe
recommendationscontainedinthereport,theoffice'sresponse
thereto,andareferencetothesupportingcomments.
Recommendation#1 Werecommendthattheofficerecognizemulti-yearlobbyinglicense
revenuesasrequiredbystateaccountingpolicy 4
OfficeResponse: Concur. SeepageB-3.
Recommendation#2 Werecommendtheofficerecordthenewdatabaseontheaccounting
recordsasrequiredbystateaccountingpolicy 4
OfficeResponse: Concur. SeepageB-3.
PageS-1