In their annual audit, auditors found that the Marigold Manufacturing Company purchased over $12 million of office equipment under its “special ordering” system. All of these equipment orders ranged from $2,000 to $25,000 meeting individual departments’ order authorization limits. Company policy specifies that special orders should be included in a department manager’s budget. The budget, which limits the types and dollar amounts of office equipment a department head can request, is approved at the beginning of the year by the board of directors. The special ordering system process functions as follows:

Purchasing Department:

A purchase requisition form is prepared by the department manager and sent to the purchasing department.

One of the five purchasing agents (buyers) verifies that the purchase requisition is indeed from a department head.

The buyer chooses the appropriate vendor by searching various catalogs online.

The buyer contacts the supplier and requests a price quote.

The buyer processes a prenumbered purchase order and sends it to the supplier. The buyer also sends copies to the requesting department head, the receiving manager, and the accounts payable clerk.

When the item is received, the receiving clerk phones the buyer to inform him/her that the item has been received.

The buyer then marks the PO complete and files it. Receiving Department:

When equipment is received, the receiving clerk stamps his/her copy of the purchase order with the date

If there are any differences between the quantity ordered and the quantity received they are noted in red ink.

The receiving clerk then forwards the stamped purchase order and the equipment to the department that ordered it. The receiving clerk phones the buyer in the purchasing department to let him/her know that the goods were received. Accounts Payable Department:

When a vendor invoice is received, it is matched with the applicable purchase order.

A journal entry is created by debiting the requisitioning department’s equipment account and crediting accounts payable.

Unpaid invoices are filed by the due date.

On the due date, a check is prepared and forwarded to the treasurer for signature.

The invoice and purchase order is filed by the purchase order number in the paid invoice file. Treasurer:

Checks from accounts payable are sorted into two groups: those over $10,000 and those under $10,000.

Checks under $10,000 are machine signed. The cashier maintains the check signature machine’s key and signature plate and monitors its use.

For checks over $10,000, both the cashier and the treasurer sign each check.

Required:

1. Describe 9 internal control weaknesses (8 more – the first one is done for you) relating to the processes of “special orders”

2. Recommend control procedures that will mitigate the weaknesses identified.

3. Describe how the control procedures you recommended should be modified if Marigold adopted the use of current information technology (e.g., EDI, EFT, bar-code scanning, and electronic forms in place of paper documents). Prepare your answer using three columns as follows. The first one is done for you as an example.

Weakness	Control	Effect of new IT
1. Buyer does not verify that the department head’s request is within his/her budget.	Compare requested amounts to total budget and YTD expenditures.	The system can automatically compare the requested amount to the remaining budget.