Summary

This operational audit, covering the period July 1, 2003, through February 28, 2005, and selected actions taken through May 31, 2006, focused on an examination of volume adjustment payments made under the On-Line Licensing System and Call Center Services Agreement and an evaluation of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s controls over the collection, processing, and recording of revenues and licensee data.

Our audit disclosed the following:

Finding No. 1:        In a prior audit report we reported that the benefit sharing methodology used to calculate Share-in-Savings (SIS) volume adjustment payments did not incorporate output levels into its saving calculations.  Output levels have now been incorporated in the calculations.  However, the processes used to calculate the adjustments were not documented in sufficient detail to allow a reasonable verification of the appropriateness of the adjustment amounts.

Finding No. 2:        The Department has not established procedures requiring the conduct of periodic reviews of the integrity, reliability, and security of the data residing in its Single Licensing System.

Finding No. 3:        The Department uses the LicenseEase application (LicenseEase) to initially record cash receipts in a temporary account until an assignment can be made to the applicable license or other regulatory account.   We found that the Department had not taken the actions necessary to timely research and post the amounts collected to the applicable license records.

Finding No. 4:        Various audit tests and analyses disclosed significant data reliability and processing issues for records residing in the Single Licensing System’s Enforcement Module.

Finding No. 5:        The Department’s Office of General Counsel is responsible for monitoring and pursuing collection of certain overdue accounts.  Relative to these collections efforts, the General Counsel’s Office has assigned incompatible duties to one individual.

Finding No. 6:        The Department did not perform reconciliations of the receipts recorded in LicenseEase to corresponding revenues and fund accounts maintained in FLAIR.

Finding No. 7:        Under certain circumstances, LicenseEase may improperly assess late penalties for license fees that were paid in a timely manner.

Finding No. 8:        The Department did not always comply with Florida Statutes that require the timely deposit of funds into the State Treasury.  

Finding No. 9:        Various audit tests and analyses disclosed significant data reliability and processing issues with regard to the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’s assessment and collection of penalties and interest.   

Finding No. 10:     The Department uses the services of a contractor to collect and process e-payments receipted in LicenseEase.  The Department did not perform procedures to verify the accuracy of fees charged by the contractor before paying for the services.