3.5 Access to the Internal Auditor

Direct but limited access to the Board by the Director of Audit, as the internal auditor, is an exception to the exclusive role of the Chancellor in connecting governance and management.

Accordingly, the Director of Audit oversees MCCCD’s Internal Audit and Management Advisory Services (IAMAS) Department, which is charged with the responsibility for ascertaining that MCCCD’s systems of internal controls, risk management, and organizational processes, as designed and represented by management, are adequate and functioning. IAMAS is also responsible for reporting to management and the Audit and Finance Committee on the adequacy and effectiveness of the organization’s systems of internal control, together with ideas, counsel, and recommendations to improve the systems.

1. If, after having brought to the Chancellor’s attention any impropriety discovered in the course of his or her own work, the internal auditor feels that the Chancellor has failed to address the impropriety, the Director of Audit must report that impropriety to the Board President.
2. Impropriety in this context means a material weakness in operational management or a violation of Board policies regarding financial affairs of the District.
3. Nothing in this policy impedes the Chancellor from exercising his or her Board-granted prerogative to interpret applicable Board policies under the “reasonable interpretation” rule, nor does it remove from the Board the right to judge reasonableness. However, impropriety as used in provision #2 above can indicate that in the opinion of the Director of Audit, an interpretation made by the Chancellor is not “reasonable.”
4. The Director of Audit is in all other ways as subject to the Chancellor’s managerial authority as all other staff and has no direct access to the Board except as permitted by law or district policy and/or regulations. The Chancellor may not impede the Director of Audit’s official access as described in this policy, or seek to inappropriately influence the content of the Director of Audit’s reporting to the Board as set forth in this policy.
5. Nothing in this provision shall be deemed to limit or prohibit the Board from hiring external or internal auditors who may be assigned to report to the Board, or as the Board may choose, another designee (e.g., Legal Counsel).