Data Analysis in the Tennessee Division of State Audit

Software Used ACL, currently version 8 Since 1996 SAS, both mainframe and PC Since the late 1980s Culprit, mainframe Since the beginning of time... uh, I mean since we started doing data analysis!

Why ACL? Selected because, particularly at that time, it seemed to manage the very large data sets better than its competitors.

Why SAS? Mainframe: Allows the use of large mainframe data sets that cannot be managed in ACL. PC: Allows the use of data sets that cannot be managed in ACL and provides higher-level statistical analysis.

Why Culprit? Cullinane Corporations EDP Auditor application. Still in use because there are routine jobs working in Culprit that would not pay to re-write. New data analysis not written in Culprit.

Data Analysis Performed

Accounting System Summary: tie data from an extract to reporting--ensure that data file is complete Stratification: identify outliers Samples (per auditor request) Monthly reconciliation of the months accounting system records to ensure data is complete.

Accounting System Vendor-type payments to state employees Reasonable date values Payments made within required time Valid data in the fields Valid social security numbers

Payroll Duplicate checks Invalid SSNs Supplemental pay calculations Overtime Reconcile gross pay by area to payroll expenditures in the accounting system

Payroll Recalculate FICA and net pay Check number sequence (gap/duplicate) Checks over a given dollar value considered excessive

Purchasing Test percentage of minority businesses getting contracts Online approvals by persons with appropriate authority Fixed asset field is appropriate based on the item's commodity code

TennCare (Medicaid) State employees receiving TennCare TennCare enrollees with P.O. boxes Out-of-state enrollees Incarcerated persons receiving TennCare And the list goes on...

Authorization Controls From a variety of systems, we have compared security (access) listings to payroll records to test that staff with access to the system are still employed by the state (or college, or university, or agency....)

WIC Test for clients meeting program parameters Summarize vouchers issued by staff Stratify results

Lottery Calculation of sales, liabilities, and changes in each before and after a programming error caused no repeating numbers to be drawn

Unemployment Benefits Recalculate Benefit Amounts Voluminous Data Complex Data Use of Mainframe SAS and ACL

The Good, The Bad, and the Promising

ACL: The Good ACL is a strong performer, and can be effectively used by audit staff with realistic training Continually updated with new features Very responsive to customer comments

ACL: If only... It would allow users more control over data imported from CSV and Excel files. It had prettier output. They hadnt gone and messed up the log structure (from Version 7).

SAS: The Good Havent found the data it wont handle! Output can be formatted to look like just about anything you want. Can perform higher-level statistics than most audit tools.

SAS: If only... If only staff auditors could readily learn the base product without having to buy a front- end! If only it werent quite so resource intensive!

The Promising We are currently wading into the world of GIS in auditing. Alternative fuel stations Dollars generated by or provided to individual counties Individuals served by county Possible ARRA reporting tool