The Auditor General has given a failing grade to CedarBridge Academy after the school was unable to provide completed financial statements for the second year in a row.In a report tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, Heather Jacobs Matthews said that an audit of the schools finances up to the end of March 2010 “indicated serious deficiencies in the system of internal controls and the overall control environment”.“As a consequence, I was not able to satisfy myself that all revenues and expenses of the Academy had been reflected, nor was I able to satisfy myself that recorded transactions represented valid transactions of the Academy.“Due to a lack of sufficient appropriate audit evidence assets, liabilities, net assets, revenues and expenses are not susceptible to satisfactory audit verification.“As a result, I was unable to determine whether adjustments were required in respect to recorded or unrecorded assets, recorded or unrecorded liabilities and the components making up the statements of operation and changes in net assets.”Ms Matthews concluded that she was “unable to express an opinion” whether the financial statements were presented “fairly” in accordance with accounting regulations.The accounts were presented by Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons, acting on behalf of Education Minister Nalton Brangman.Dr Gibbons told MPs that the Department of Internal Audit performed had conducted a review of accounting procedures at the school in the summer of 2010.“The internal audit report noted significant deficiencies in the quality, adequacy and completeness of financial records, the absence of formalised operational policies and procedures, a lack of segregation of duties and needed process improvements for the Board of Governors to comply with the Education Act 1996 and effectively exercise its oversight role,” Dr Gibbons said.Dr Gibbons said that similar audit findings are expected to be made when the school releases its accounts for the year up to March 2011.But he stressed that a new school board which first sat in 2011, had “responded proactively” to the situation and moved to improve the financial oversight of the school.According to Dr Gibbons, these moves included the hiring of a qualified professional accountant, modifying processes to attain a greater degree of segregation of duties, enhancing financial and internal controls and implementing the requirement for two authorised signatories for the approval of online payroll transactions.And he said that a further board appointed this year “are fully aware of these audit reports and are continuing to exercise oversight and appropriate levels of monitoring to ensure that the recommended corrective actions are fully implemented”.“Most importantly, the board is committed to working with the Auditor General’s office to get caught up on the audits as the current financial reporting processes that were put in place allow for more efficient and timely audits to take place,” Dr Gibbons said.According to the 2009/2010 financial statements, the school received an operating grant from Government of almost $16 million.It spent $9.4 million on teacher salaries and a further $3.47 million on administrative pay and employee benefits. Other big expenses included a $862,114 electricity bill and maintenance costs of $781,996.But the school cafeteria did make a profit. It cost almost $245,000 to run for the year, but brought in revenue of more than $400,000.CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards did not respond to requests for comment from The Royal Gazette.