Imprest bank account — general ledger reconciliation

The Board noted differences between the general ledger reconciliation with the cashbook and the bank statement balance reconciliation with the cashbook, both understating the cash balance.

It was further noted that the general ledger and subsidiary ledger reconciliation for all accounts was not yet done on a monthly basis and thus errors would not be identified in a timely manner.

(d) Although there was an automated matching of the bank statements to the subsidiary ledgers, the reconciliation of the subsidiary ledger was a manual process;

(d) Although there was an automated matching of the bank statements to the subsidiary ledgers, the reconciliation of the subsidiary ledger with the general ledger was a manual process (see para. 22 above);

The Committee notes that Atlas was implemented in January 2004 and that the general ledger and bank reconciliation modules were not implemented in 2004.

Regarding the recommendation for UNDP to prepare monthly reconciliations of bank accounts maintained on behalf of UNFPA, UNFPA has revised its arrangement with UNDP so that UNDP will perform monthly cashbook-to-bank reconciliations and quarterly general ledger-to-bank reconciliations (paragraph 27).

This weakness is compounded by the numerous related deficiencies that the Board identified such as: inadequate segregation of duties; no operational general ledger; no automated bank reconciliation facility; inadequate controls to prevent payee details; limited monitoring reports; and limited installation of firewalls.

This weakness is compounded by the numerous related deficiencies that the Board identified above, such as: inadequate segregation of duties; no internal audit verification of the accuracy and validity of journals resulting from the data clean-up exercise; no operational general ledger; no automated bank reconciliation facility; inadequate controls to prevent payee details; limited monitoring reports; and limited installation of firewalls.

This weakness is compounded by the numerous related deficiencies that the Board identified above, including: inadequate segregation of duties; no operational general ledger; no automated bank reconciliation facility; inadequate controls to prevent changes to payee details; limited monitoring reports; and limited installation of firewalls. While this has not impacted the 2002-2003 financial statements, the Board is concerned that if risks pertaining to this significant event after the balance sheet date are not addressed expeditiously it could result in major future operational difficulties for the organization.