The Finance Department has the responsibility to promote its standard practices and procedures where needed to clarify Board Policies, Department of Education Rules, audit requirements, and good internal control practices. We are in the process of updating these measures which can be viewed on our Procedures Website at http://www.pbcc.edu/finprocedures.xml.

The Finance Department personnel have been compiling procedures based on past practices, memos, and older procedures documentation, which is to be codified and combined into a cohesive set of documents. These documents will be used as a guide and must be followed not only by Finance Personnel, but also by all College Staff where applicable. One will find many of these items to be standard practice, but useful for newer employees, and organized in a way that will be more logical and accessible.

Beginning in November we will send updated email reminders, and have notations on the actual website where the procedures are found, to indicate significant additions or updates. Note that this is a work in progress and there are several areas that remain to be completed in the updated format. However, many completed items may be of use to you right now.

It has been one year since the establishment of our Panther Patrol. The patrol has visited all campuses, with the exception of the Historical Building (look out!) Panther Patrol targets purchases made mostly through PCard, but may also look at items purchased through Purchase Orders. They visit unannounced, at least we had no report of any episodes of early-radar detection, and ask to physically see the purchases. To date, the Patrol has made 17 visits, and has found some violations, including one unreported stolen item and items not properly signed out while taken off-campus.

The majority of you are behaving well in that general compliance was "pretty good" at 88% (is that a "B+", Professor?) with some of you deserving an "A+" for arranging and maintaining inventory setups that were clear and precise. Special recognition goes to Michael Seminerio in Humanities and Don Kauts in Trade & Industry for maintaining great records and control over the inventory items we audited. Overall, it's been a successful process with the team as prepared as ever to go out and look every chance they get. Good work, Panther Patrol!