A committee charged with overhauling parts of the Department of Public Safety is considering the possibility of doing more business online as a way to reduce over-the-counter payments for parking tickets and permits.
The idea follows an Oregon University System audit that discovered poor accounting practices and a lack of staff training left the University unable to document what happened to tens of thousands of dollars in cash, checks and credit cards DPS handled over the past three years.
According to figures recently provided by the University, DPS’ cash, check and credit cards – called cash receipts – decreased a total of $95,569.12 from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2005.
The total revenue from parking permits, citations and meters on campus increased $74,004.50 over those three years, for a total of about $1,586,612 in 2005.
The Dec. 20 OUS audit couldn’t determine whether theft, loss or simply a shifting of payment methods was responsible for the decrease.
But DPS Director Tom Hicks on Monday said he believes the decrease was simply a result of more OUS employees paying for parking permits with payroll deductions and more departments using internal transfers to pay for parking en masse over the past few years.
“It’s less reliance to payments right there at the front counter than in previous years,” Hicks said.
While cash receipts decreased about $95,600, payroll deductions and internal transfers increased $169,573.54, meaning that the cash receipts decrease could have been a mere shift to electronic transfers.
Payroll deductions for OUS employees and funds transfers through the University’s internal system already account for a larger share of revenue than cash receipts, and the committee is hoping to move further in that direction, Hicks said.
Students and faculty won’t be able to make online payments for parking tickets and permits this academic year, but the idea is something the committee is addressing for the long term, Hicks said.
The committee is also helping train DPS staff members by writing policies for cash receipt handling and ensuring employees can report accounting discrepancies to their bosses.
Vice President for Finance and Administration Frances Dyke originally requested the OUS audit after the Business Affairs Office told her that DPS missed a regular deposit. The audit found that poor cash-handling practices made DPS vulnerable to theft. It discovered that the supervisor didn’t understand the cash-handling process and that employees weren’t given job evaluations and weren’t able to make deposits.
The audit recommended training for staff members, creating new reporting processes, possibly installing a cash register at the front desk and ensuring supervisors monitor employees for compliance with the new rules.
The audit also called for Dyke to create a plan for addressing these issues by the end of January.
In Dyke’s response, dated Jan. 30, she stated that a team of experts from various departments is currently reviewing polices and procedures and will recommend needed changes. It is also looking at practices at other colleges and universities, according to the one-page document.
Hicks said his department has written draft procedures for how to handle cash receipts, and it is now looking to finalize them. Also, DPS may need to add a business manager or add an office specialist to oversee cash-handling procedures at the front counter, he said.
A software company representative is expected to visit DPS to look at altering its software so it can produce daily, weekly and monthly reports that can be used to help identify accounting errors, Hicks said.

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