Evaluating Internal Controls

* “Basic” level classes that fall within the accounting, auditing, and financial reporting topic assume that all participants have a fundamental understanding of double-entry accounting (e.g., debits and credits, normal account balances), elements of financial statements (e.g., assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses), and broad categories of financial statements (e.g., position statements and operating statements). Participants who have current knowledge equivalent to those who have recently passed a college-level accounting class will meet these criteria.

Participants will examine, from a state and local government perspective, each of the essential components of a comprehensive framework of internal control, along with the accompanying principles and points of focus identified in the Council of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) most recent version of Internal Control – Integrated Framework. The public-sector manager’s role in fraud prevention and detection also will be discussed. This course combines lecture, discussion, and exercises.

Those who successfully complete this seminar should be able to:

• Define internal control and explain how it relates to basic managerial objectives
• Identify the respective responsibilities of management, the governing body, external auditors, and internal auditors in regard to internal control
• Identify the five essential components of a comprehensive framework of internal control
• Identify the 17 principles associated with those five essential components
• Identify the key points of focus related to each principle
• Describe the inherent limitations of internal control
• Describe the relationship between internal control and enterprise risk management
• Describe the relationship between internal control and fraud
• Describe how fraud can be identified and how identified fraud should be managed

This course is taught by GFOA Technical Services Center staff, finance officers and other industry experts.