Dear colleagues,
Earlier this fall we announced the clean-up effort of high-risk role combinations, which was initially delayed due to COVID-19 and resumed in September. We understand the burden that this effort causes, especially to smaller units; those which are short-staffed; or some of you that have a tremendous volume of transactions. We also acknowledge that these factors make implementing effective internal controls measures more difficult.
However, we need to reiterate that successful completion of this effort is still vital to ensuring the University of Illinois System’s fiscal responsibility and thus necessary for continuing its mission. We ask that you stay diligent and continue to make every effort to clean-up these conflicting role combinations, as previously communicated.
Upon hearing your feedback through a series of focus groups, the Implementation Team has prepared a temporary mitigation strategy, which we hope will alleviate some of the burden for units that would otherwise struggle.
The Implementation Team will soon be offering Mitigating Control Plans for units that qualify. The plan template and an outline of the process will be available in January and accessible through the Internal Controls website. In addition, we are taking a look at system roles and other creative solutions, such as lowering P-Card purchase limits and iBuy approval requirement below $10,000.
We encourage you to take advantage of the resources available on the Internal Controls website. The site provides detailed information about the prohibited role combinations, latest updates, and explains the iBuy, FABWeb and Banner roles in further detail. If you have questions, please use the Contact Us form on the website and members of the Implementation Team will be in touch.
We are thankful for your efforts and patience through this process. We know how difficult it is especially during these challenging times. We are doing our best to help you and we appreciate your partnership and cooperation.
Paul Ellinger
Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning
Brent Rasmus
University of Illinois-System Offices