Surprise audits are coming to the Islands’ 66 parishes in an effort by the diocese to ensure that money collected from Mass offertories is being handled securely.
According to diocesan finance officer Lisa Sakamoto, representatives from the local firm Acuity will visit each parish “soon” (the diocese is not divulging the schedule) to observe the parish’s collection-counting practices. A checklist of guidelines was sent to churches last year detailing proper methods to prevent theft (see box on this page).
“We rely so much on our parishioners to allow us to fulfill our mission,” Sakamoto said. “It’s incumbent upon us to make sure we have best practices to protect these precious resources.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars flow into local churches each week as collection baskets are passed among congregants at Sunday and daily Masses. The money, mostly checks and cash, is the parishes’ primary source of revenue.
The diocese is aware of how easily these funds can be compromised by even the slightest lapse in safekeeping. The upcoming audits aim to boost parishioners’ confidence that their donations are being stewarded wisely. They also serve to protect church staffers from any erroneous implications.
“The whole premise behind best practice is to protect the individuals who are volunteering to serve in the church as a cash counter,” Sakamoto said.
She also noted that Bishop Larry Silva hopes the audits will help provide “an environment that is transparent and accountable to those who are generous to us.”
While Sakamoto said she is unaware of any current cases of embezzlement in local parishes, the Diocese of Honolulu has had its share of collection crime in the past, some cases involving the misappropriation of tens of thousands of dollars.
It is not an uncommon problem for the Catholic Church — a 2007 study by Villanova University showed that out of 78 U.S. dioceses that responded to a survey on internal financial controls, 85 percent of them had experienced an instance of embezzlement.
Eleven percent of those dioceses reported that more than half-a-million dollars had been stolen.
Noon Mass collection at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.
Just this past January, the Detroit Free Press newspaper published the story of a Catholic pastor in the Detroit archdiocese who was under investigation for taking more than $400,000 in church funds.
With the diocesan checklist of collection-handling rules, Sakamoto and the diocesan finance office hope to prevent situations like these. The Diocese of Honolulu collaborated with other dioceses to create the streamlined set of 22 points all Hawaii parishes must follow, noting everything from who should count the offertory money to how these funds should be stored.
“When you don’t have the controls in place, there’s a lot of temptation,” Sakamoto said. “We want to make sure we’re one step ahead.”
The auditing system for parishes has also become more stringent. In the past, the diocese had an auditor on staff who inspected offertory protocols at churches every few years. This year will mark the first time an external firm will be doing the checks, and the diocese aims to do these audits on a more regular basis.
According to Sakamoto, if a parish is not following the collection guidelines and does not pass its audit, the parish will be given several months to “clean up” its process. It will be re-audited until it satisfactorily meets diocesan standards.
“There are consequences,” Sakamoto said. “If the parishes choose simply to ignore this, they can’t anymore.”
The finance office recently sent to parishes via email a PDF file showing the names and faces of the Acuity representatives who will be conducting the audit. Sakamoto said a parish that passes inspection will receive a written notice of its compliance to post in the church. The Acuity auditing firm will also provide a training video on proper offertory handling once all the parish visits are completed.
Sakamoto said these audits may be rigorous, but they serve to underscore the importance of financial prudence in the Catholic community.
“If we expect people to give, then we at the minimum should make sure we are good stewards of [what we receive],” Sakamoto said. “Without the offertory, there’s no church.”
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A CHECKLIST FOR CONTROLLING OFFERTORY COLLECTIONS
These instructions were sent to parishes last year and put into effect July 1, 2012.
IN THE CHURCH
- 1. Have the tamper-evident bags been placed in the sacristy?
- 2. Have the Mass designations been written on the bags before Mass begins?
- 3. Do we have two unrelated persons assigned to place the collections in the bags after Mass is done?
- 4. Did we seal and initial the bags?
- 5. If the money is to be counted right after the Mass, are two unrelated persons escorting the money to the count room? (The priest should not be taking it to the count room alone.)
- 6. If the money is to be counted at a later time, are two unrelated persons going to place the filled bag(s) in the church safe immediately following the Mass? (The priest should not be taking it to the safe alone.)
IN THE COUNT ROOM
- 7. Are two unrelated persons on the count team retrieving the tamper-evident bags directly from the Parish safe?
- 8. Does the safe require two individuals to open? If yes, are the keys separated so that no one individual has access to two keys? If no, is access limited to the priests only and not to any other individuals?
- 9. Is the count room secure?
- 10. Are there at least two unrelated persons, preferably three, in the count room at all times while the counting is taking place?
- 11. Are we adhering to the proper rules?
- a. The parish bookkeeper is not to be involved in the count process.
- b. We cannot cash a check(s) from the collected offertory cash.
- c. Contributed amounts, cash and checks, are noted on parishioner envelopes for posting at a later date.
- 12. Have we verified the bag numbers to the log?
- 13. Have we examined the bags to make sure they haven’t been tampered with?
- 14. Are we immediately restrictively endorsing every check “for deposit only”?
- 15. Are we re-counting loose coin and currency to verify the count?
- 16. Do we have the proper collection summary form for recording the count?
- 17. Have the deposit counts been properly recorded on the collection summary?
- 18. Has the collection summary been signed?
- 19. Have the deposits been placed in bank deposit bags or tamper-evident bags and deposited immediately by someone other than the parish bookkeeper?
- 20. Has the parish bookkeeper reconciled the collection summary with the deposit slip(s) and presented them to the pastor for his review and acceptance?
- 21. Has the pastor noted his acceptance on the collection summary?
- 22. Are the tamper-evident bags properly secured and not accessible by those individuals who have access to the safe?
