SU Financial Report Late: “Major Transitions” cause Two-Month Delay

State auditors had a difficult time gathering information pertinent to Southern’s annual financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014. The original deadline for the report was September 19, in order to ensure the state’s Comprehensive Annual Fiscal Report of all agencies was issued by December 31. Southern’s report was not submitted until the 17 of November last year.
“During our audit work, we experienced numerous delays obtaining information, with more than one-third of our audit requests taking more than two weeks to fulfill and some taking more than three months,” said financial auditors.
Despite being two months late, the report was also reportedly “did not provide timely information to auditors, thereby jeopardizing the timely issuance” of Louisiana’s financial report. The audit report also states that errors involved “misclassifications and omissions” of data.
SU System President Ronald Mason attributes the mistakes to “major transitions” in management and vacancies in various positions. However, Mason assured that the system is in the process of creating better processes and reassigning staff.
“The Southern University System is fully committed to the principles of timely, accurate and complete financial reporting, and we will utilize our best efforts to ensure that we adhere to these principles and standards,” Mason wrote. “The system’s vice president for finance and business, along with the chief financial officers of the campuses, will be responsible for implementing corrective actions.” finished Mason in his statement.