The Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Audit and Risk reviewed and accepted the University's 2013-14 audited financial statements during a teleconference meeting this morning (Oct. 24).
In his report to the committee, Joe Doncsecz, associate vice president for finance and the University's Corporate Controller, said the University operating margin was 11.1 percent during 2014, and operating revenue rose by about $276 million or 6 percent. Instructional expenses increased $58 million or 5 percent.
The financial statements were audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, independent auditors, and will be posted to the website of the Corporate Controller once the report is presented to the full Board of Trustees on Nov. 14.
In other action, it was reported that a draft charter for a subcommittee on risk has been completed, and will be presented to the Governance Committee for approval in November. Trustee Ted Brown is the anticipated chair of that subcommittee.
"I think what we agreed is that with the subcommittee they're going to be able to dive more deeply into the risk issues, per se, as well as the oversight by the rest of the committee, so there will be more focus and more time spent" in that area, said Karen Peetz, chair of the Committee on Audit and Risk.
The committee also approved the Internal Audit Department Charter, which must be approved annually to stay in conformance within internal auditing standards, and reviewed a follow-up report on past audits. The main topic of the report was management’s continued responsiveness regarding open audit findings and the pace at which such findings are addressed.
Audio from today's meeting can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXA9Wf3nr5o online.