Irish Mountain
Running Association

Internal Audit

AuthorDateMessage
Diarmuid O'ColmainJun 13 2012, 1:38pmHi fellow members,

those of you who wer at the IMRA AGM at the end of last year may remember that (as the internal IMRA auditor) I presented a report on the IMRA accounts but explained that some further work was required to finalize the audit, due to time pressure in the period leading up to the AGM.

I am glad to report that I have now completed the audit and include it at the bottom of this post.

I’d like to thank Dee Ni Chearrbhall (Treasurer) for her unfailing spirit of cooperation and openness. We are very lucky to have Dee as our treasurer.

The Forum functionality does not facilitate the kind of formatting that is needed for this report. If anyone wants a copy of the Word document, please email me at docolmain_at_gmail.com



Internal Audit Report for IMRA for the year 2010 to 2011

The Role of the Internal Auditor

In summary, the Purpose of the internal auditor is to:
Support the IMRA Treasurer in
¢ Safeguarding the funds of the IMRA membership
¢ Guarding against the risk of embezzlement
¢ Adopting an appropriate level of record-keeping of income and expenditure
¢ Devising simplified/improved methods and procedures relating to financial management, if possible (Both from an overall accounts perspective and the racing activities of the organisation)

Validate the financial state of the Association to the membership



1. Audit activities and audit plan
The internal auditor, Diarmuid O’Colmain and the IMRA Treasurer, Deirdre Ni Chearrbhall met during the period ahead of the AGM to review the financial information of the association, and the auditor had full access to all books of account, bank statements etc.

a. The following reconciliation of figures has been carried out
i. Reconcile ‘ledger’ record of daily financial transactions with bank statements as follows:
1. Month end balance for each month
2. Each item of Travel Cost
3. Sample event receipts for a number of races
4. Sample individual cost items

ii. Reconcile ‘ledger’ record of daily financial transactions with P&L statement in respect of
1. Total Expenses
2. Total Income
3. Insurance Costs
4. Travel Costs

b. Actual receipts for purchases of a sample set of items were inspected and validated:

c. The number of participants was reconciled approximately with Race Income for a sample set of races.



2. Comments on the financial accounts
a. Presentation
Records kept by the IMRA Treasurer are excellent – simple structure and easy to follow, with a multi-year perspective available

b. Accuracy
All sample items checked reconciled correctly except in relation to
i. Some championship races where the race receipts were used directly for prizes i.e. the costs were netted off the income. This is an understandable, but undesirable practice. The extent of this practice is not material in the context of the overall IMRA accounts. Nevertheless It is suggested the committee seek to find a way to eliminate this.

ii. International events, the handling of which is complicated financially; with IMRA paying athletes’ costs and then being partly refunded by the athletes; together with the sheer number of different events, some involving the same people. This makes it difficult to reconcile numbers precisely.

The auditor and the treasurer have discussed this matter at length and agreed a course of action that I am satisfied should substantially improve the transparency around the handling of the finances related to international events. The change involves a slightly more detailed book-keeping record being kept in relation to these transactions.

c. Issues
There are no issues of concern with the financial accounts that need to be drawn to the attention of the membership. As far as I can judge, everything is in order based on the information I have examined.

3. Conclusions and comments
a. The attitude of the Treasurer to the audit was one of total cooperation and transparency, which made the task easy, and a pleasure to conduct.

b. Management of cash at IMRA races is intrinsically unsatisfactory as any race director can attest to. This comment is based on personal experience and observation rather than arising from the examination of the accounts. It is a difficult problem to solve, other than by engineering a situation whereby on-line payment of registration and race entry fees becomes the norm and payment by cash the exception. There is nothing the Treasurer on her own can do to rectify this situation; fixing it requires a strategic decision regarding how we manage races.

It is strongly recommended that on-line collection of money from members for registration and even race entry be put in place.

c. Minor book-keeping changes for international events as discussed above.
Bronagh CheethamJun 14 2012, 4:44pmHi Diarmuid
In relation to your Conclusion and Comments section here, can I just say that I couldn’t agree more on the financials re money collection on the night. I never feel too comfortable with the handling of the money situation and the procedure/controls on race night from a RD point of view. Personally I always get someone from the volunteers to count the money with me as happened last night but even as a minimum that’s not really enough. Could I make a few basic suggestions for consideration until such time as a new /better solution in place such as the online solution.

While the current guidelines are good to follow I think they lack some definitive direction for the immediate handling of the monies on race night. Some of this is obvious and probably mainly done by most Im sure but just to note all the same. Its not my place to outline procedures as the committe do any excellent role in that but just making some comments/suggestions based on my own experience if I may.

1.Monies are securely locked into RD car (or other) immediately after registration is closed by RD.
2. Monies are then counted into money bags on the night by RD with the assistance of another volunteer . (best time to do this is when race is actually on I find)
3. The current Income Reconciliation form is completed and signed by both counters -not just RD as currently suggested.
4. Monies and form placed into padded envelope and sealed until such time as its brought to the bank and current procedures followed thereafter.
5. IR form and bank lodgement slip -both bank stamped - then returned to Treasurer
This would mean that the race kit should include a financials bag to include: float, money bags, padded envelopes, blank copies of the IR form.

tks, Bronagh



Diarmuid O'ColmainJun 15 2012, 9:13amThanks Bronagh, some useful suggestions and good perspective.

Just to reiterate, I do make a top level check of some represenative races (across all types of races) by corelating the number of participants in the Results with the cash taken in. This is unavoidably approximate but would show up major discrepancies for the races checked. Having done that and then just scanning the income recorded in the list of races, should show up any 'anomalous' races.

But I would like a better system for cash handling, as mentioned in the report.