Preliminary Follow-up: An Audit of Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation Payroll
Auditor's Letter
December 16, 2025
Auditor’s Office, as authorized by Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 19a, “County Auditor,” Part 2, “Powers and Duties,” we maintain our responsibility to monitor and ensure that audit recommendations are addressed by county agencies through appropriate corrective action, which is also instrumental in shaping future audits.
This communication serves as the preliminary follow-up report for An Audit of Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation Payroll, following the original audit report issued in July 2024. The original audit identified nine findings with 22 recommendations. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the progress made in addressing the findings and recommendations aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and compliance.
Parks and Recreation management fully implemented 16 of the 22 audit recommendations, five recommendations were still in progress, and one recommendation was closed. By implementing recommendations such as completing background checks for new hires in a timely manner, retaining documentation related to bonuses, providing additional training, and expanding Standard Operating Guides, management has demonstrated a strong commitment to mitigating the risks identified in the initial audit.
Five recommendations remain in progress. Two of the five related to revoking terminated employee access. County policy requires that agencies request access removal no later than the employees’ last day worked. However, for temporary employees, Parks and Recreation requested access removal within 90 days of the last day worked. This procedure was verbally approved by Human Resources. Additionally, Parks and Recreation implemented a batch procedure to request terminated employee network access be revoked. However, Parks and Recreation implemented this process after the follow-up audit period, in June 2025. Therefore, we will retest both recommendations during the next follow-up audit.
Additional work is also needed to address risks related to missed and mobile timeclock entries, the use of paper timesheets and the accurate calculation of employees’ cell phone stipends. A secondary follow-up audit will be conducted no sooner than April 2026 to verify recommendation implementation in these areas.
The closed recommendation involved working with County Information Technology (IT) to troubleshoot GPS reporting errors. After consulting with IT and the TimeClock Plus (TCP) vendor, management determined that the TCP system cannot verify the accuracy or reliability of GPS data collected from employee devices. As a result, a risk remains that location information may not provide a dependable record of employee worksites.
We performed this audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions.
The follow-up period for this audit covered November 1, 2024, through May 30, 2025. Our review focused on verifying the implementation status of recommendations from the July 2024 audit report through document review, analysis, and discussions with Parks and Recreation management.
We extend our appreciation to Parks and Recreation management for their cooperation during this process. The enclosed follow-up report summarizes the current status of the recommendations. Should you have any questions or require further discussion, please do not hesitate to contact me at 385-468-7200.
Chris Harding, CPA, CFE, CIA
Salt Lake County Auditor
