Audit: NCUA Did Not Adequately Monitor, Account, and Dispose of IT Equipment

An audit by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that NCUA did not adequately monitor, account, and dispose of all of its information technology (IT) equipment.

The audit had two objectives -- to determine: 1) whether the NCUA has IT equipment inventory policies and procedures; and 2) whether the NCUA adequately monitors and accounts for its IT equipment from acquisition through final disposition.

The audit covered the period from January 1, 2014, through June 30, 2017.

The OIG found that the NCUA did not follow its instruction to dispose of IT equipment “as promptly as possible”. For example, in 2009, management did not dispose of approximately 300 laptops that it had identified as “exhausted or excess” until 2018.

Also, the report concluded that the NCUA did not use existing procedures to remove disposed equipment from its financial systems and that its current financial system did not provide reliable information for inventory verifications and was not a comprehensive asset management system.

The OIG found the 25 percent of the NCUA’s inventory records did not match to items on hand.

In addition, the NCUA does not immediately reconcile what it ordered with what it received. The OIG stated that NCUA ran the risk of paying for IT equipment that it had not received.

The OIG found that NCUA spent $440,000 on IT equipment it did not need. The report noted that NCUA staffing projections failed to materialize due to government-wide hiring freeze and agency reorganization, which reduced staffing levels.

The OIG made seven recommendations to NCUA management that will help with IT equipment inventory management.

Read the report.