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With the completion of Northland Pioneer College’s audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, Ellison introduced Financial Audit Director Donna Miller and Audit Manager David Glennon with the Arizona Office of the Auditor General to give a final update to the Navajo County Community Governing Board on Jan. 15. It was noted that while the audit was clean there were two findings regarding IT security.
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Glennon shared that the first finding pertained to the district’s process for managing risks. “Specifically we found that the district risk assessment process did not always include identifying, analyzing and responding to IT risks. Examples of common IT risks include potential harm from unauthorized access creating security breaches and loss of data resulting from a disaster or system interruptions when IT systems go down.”
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As a result of the first finding, Glennon said there were three recommendations. The first was that the district perform annual risk assessment that includes evaluating IT risks, the second was to identify classified inventory information to assess what controls are needed to protect data in accordance with the applicable state statutes and the third was to evaluate the business functions and IT systems that would need to be restored in the event of a disaster or system failure.
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Glennon noted that the second finding pertained to the district’s IT control procedures. “We focused on three areas. The first is restricting access to IT data systems, the second pertained to configuring IT systems and the third area was securing IT systems.”
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Board Member Derrick Leslie asked if the filling of the vacant positions for the IT security coordinator and database administrator would help address the issues in the two findings.
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In response, NPC Vice President and Chief Information Officer, P.J. Way said, “Both of those positions are essential to helping us identify a number of the areas in the findings.” He continued saying that efforts are currently ongoing to improve these areas. He also noted that many of the functions listed in the findings do exist, but have not been documented.
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“Audits require documentation and we need to facilitate what we have by writing it out,” said Way. “We have a number of policies and procedures that outline some of these areas that will be addressed in the next audit. What we have failed to do is have the actual written procedures to help identify what needs to be done.”
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There was no indication in the report by the auditors that security had been breached at NPC. Following the report the board unanimously approved the audit and findings.
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In the review of the financial reports Maderia Ellison, chief business officer, noted that revenues for the five months from July to November were up slightly, largely due to the primary property tax being at 54 percent of the budget compared to 53 percent last year. Expenditures are still lower than expected due to several unfilled positions.
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Ellison noted that the federal shutdown has had little impact up to this point, but if it continues she anticipates there will be some potential issues with the grant reimbursements at the federal level.
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President Mark Vest also noted that the shutdown has impacted students who need tax records from the Internal Revenue Service to qualify for their financial aid.
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While there was no popcorn, Northland Pioneer College (NPC) Film and Digital Video Professor Mark Ford took a moment to show a short video titled, “#supportyourlocaltheater,” produced by his students for the Winslow Cinema Festival in January to the board.
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Produced by Larrilyn Oso from Winslow with the help of Jackson Kittrell from Show Low who was the director and Anthony Marietta from Holbrook who was the cinematographer, the film reviewed the history and value of local movie theaters.
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Before showing the film, Ford briefly shared, “I do video production classes where I teach students how to create videos that impact the community and be a force of change for good. My students were asked to create a film for the opening of the Winslow Cinema Festival in January. It was a connected group of students that came together to make this film and I thought they did a great job.”
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Betsyann Wilson, executive director with NPC Friends and Family, shared that the biannual newsletter, which was sent out just prior to Christmas, brought in another round of donations. “We received just under $6,000 in donations from that newsletter.”
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