Tone at the Top 2024
Responsibility, Accountability and Authority are integral to an effective internal control program
As a SUNY New Paltz employee, your dedication to excellence is the key to achieving the mission of our university. Your continued commitment to high standards of integrity and performance makes it possible for our students to live and learn in a safe, attractive and supportive environment.
Your familiarity and cooperation with SUNY New Paltz’s Internal Control Program are vitally important to our success. The internal control program relies on employees at every level of the institution being responsible and accountable for internal controls for their unit, including supervisors who must understand their role of having the authority to make decisions, identify and remediate, to the extent possible, the unique risks within their department.
Employee responsibilities:
• Fulfilling the duties and responsibilities established in one's job description. Meeting applicable performance standards.
• Attending education and training programs as appropriate to increase awareness and understanding.
• Taking all reasonable steps to safeguard assets against waste, loss, unauthorized
use and misappropriation.
• Reporting breakdowns in internal control systems to your supervisor.
• Refraining from the use of your official position to secure unwarranted privileges.
Supervisors have these additional responsibilities:
• Maintaining an office environment that encourages the design of internal controls.
• Authority and responsibility to determine and document policies and procedures that are to be followed in performing office functions.
• Identifying the control objectives for the functions performed in the office and implementing cost effective controls designed to meet those objectives.
• Regularly testing the controls to determine if they are performing as intended.
Each Vice President or Department leader is responsible for the internal control activity, corrective action development, documentation and status reporting in their respective Division.
SUNY New Paltz’s Internal Control Office will review each Division’s internal control activities and accomplishments annually prior to certifying the University’s Internal Control Program.
Our competence and professional integrity are essential components of a sound internal control program. By knowing what our responsibilities are, we can help to provide reasonable assurance that our internal control systems are adequate and operating in an efficient manner.
About internal controls:
Internal controls can be defined as operating practices and procedures that an organization adopts to achieve its goals and objectives and avoid or prevent the loss or misuse of resources. Internal controls reduce the risk of errors or irregularities that compromise the organization’s success. Simply put, internal controls are about making sure the right things are being done by the right people working together to successfully accomplish the University's goals.
In 1987, the Legislature enacted a law entitled “The New York State Governmental Accountability, Audit and Internal Control Act” to formalize a system of productivity and accountability in all state agencies. The Act was updated and made permanent in Chapter 510 of the Laws of 1999. The Division of Budget (DOB) subsequently issued the Budget Policy and Reporting Manual Item B-350, “Governmental Internal Control and Internal Audit Requirements”, which requires all state agencies to perform certain internal control activities and annually certify to DOB they are in compliance with those requirements.
Consistent with the above, SUNY promulgated its current “Internal Program Guidelines” in January 1999. As required by law, each campus must annually certify that its internal control program is in compliance with the Internal Control Act and SUNY’s Guidelines.
SUNY New Paltz’s Internal Control Program is one facet of a broader institutional commitment to continuous improvement, planning, and assessment. We interpret internal control broadly to include a broad spectrum of institutional measures and management techniques. SUNY New Paltz is committed to sound fiscal practices, effective administrative policies and procedures, client-centered personnel procedures, information security and privacy, and related measures.
Beginning in fiscal year 2024-2025 all employees responsible for managing state accounts will be required to affirm their acknowledgement of fiscal accountability by signing the Statement of SUNY New Paltz Financial Resource Stewardship.
For more information about the SUNY New Paltz Internal Control Program, please visit our website at: https://www.newpaltz.edu/internalcontrols/
Thank you for your commitment to sound internal control practices,
Michele Halstead
Vice President for Administration & Finance
