Current through Register Vol. 18, September 20, 2024
(1) The trustees of a district or the
management board of a full service education cooperative shall provide and
enforce a system of internal controls to safe-guard the district's or full
service education cooperative's money by providing the following procedural
checks and balances:
(a) Each month, a school
district or full service education cooperative that has established an
investment account(s) shall reconcile:
(i)
the district's or cooperative's records of investment balances;
(ii) county treasurer's transfers from the
district's or cooperative's funds to the account(s);
(iii) transfers from the account(s) to the
district or cooperative fund(s) held by the county treasurer;
(iv) checks cleared; and
(v) interest income to the investment account
statement.
(b) A person
other than the district or full service education cooperative employee
responsible for producing payments by check or electronic transfer, including
another district or cooperative employee, a county employee, a trustee, or a
contracted accounting professional, shall review the monthly reconcilement to
verify validity of:
(i) changes to account
routing numbers;
(ii) appropriate
payees;
(iii) proper sequence of
check numbers; and
(iv)
authorization of expenditures by the appropriate school district or full
service education cooperative official.
(c) No single person may control an
accounting transaction from beginning to end, meaning the same person shall not
be responsible for initiating a payment or transfer, authorizing the payment or
transfer, recording of accounting transactions for payments and transfers, and
reconcilements.
(2) When
directed by the school district or full service education cooperative, a county
treasurer shall deposit the district's or cooperative's money directly into the
appropriate investment account by issuing a treasurer's check or wire transfer
of funds to the investment account. A treasurer may not direct payments to a
subsidiary checking account.
(a) When
directing investments, the school district or full service education
cooperative shall provide written notification to the county treasurer stating
the amount to deposit and the fund making the investment.
(b) A school district or full service
education cooperative shall not purchase investments using district or
cooperative warrants.
(3) For a nonspending investment account, a
school district or full service education cooperative shall direct the
investment firm to deposit redeemed investments and interest income to the
credit of the specific and appropriate school district fund held by the county
treasurer.
(a) The school district or full
service education cooperative shall require that the investment firm,
transferring money to the district's or cooperative's fund held by the county
treasurer, inform the county treasurer in writing stating the fund(s) to which
the proceeds should be deposited and the amount of the interest earnings and
principal contained in the proceeds. Any losses incurred must also be reported
by fund.
(b) The school district or
full service education cooperative shall not make payments from a nonspending
investment account.
(4)
Before transferring money from one fund to another fund of the district, as
allowed by specific references in school laws, trustees shall return the money
from the school investment account to the related fund held by the county
treasurer. Trustees may then direct the county treasurer to transfer the money
to the receiving fund pursuant to
20-9-201,
20-9-208,
or
20-9-443,
MCA.
(5) A school district or full
service education cooperative participating in a nonspending investment account
shall monitor its cash balances maintained with the county treasurer and will
promptly redeem investments to pay district or cooperative warrants and
district bond principal and interest in a timely manner.
20-9-102,
20-9-235,
MCA; IMP,
20-9-235,
MCA;
