Is your parish using the right kind of bags to store its offertory collections? Does more than one person take collection funds to and from the parish safe? Is a log being kept of the offertory moneybags? Are collection summaries and cash counting managed properly?
About a year after the diocese issued a checklist in 2012 of two-dozen such guidelines to follow when handling the money offerings collected from the faithful during Mass, an independent team of accountants visited local parishes and ethnic ministries to see just how well these rules were being followed. The diocese received the results from the audits in a 10-page report, Aug. 22.
The news wasn’t too good.
Accuity, the firm that conducted the audits, noted that fewer than one-fifth of the diocese’s 66 parishes fully complied with the guidelines.
Representatives from the firm made the surprise audit visits after Masses during May and June. They examined how parishes and ministries handled six areas of offertory management: tamper evident bags; storage of offertory collections; tamper-evident bag logs; collection summary forms; physical access during offertory counting; and procedural controls for the collection count.
Only 12 parishes aced all six areas of review. Others were logged with varying degrees of infractions. But even those with minor violations of the rules were not given a passing certificate.
According to the report, 28 of the parishes and ministries audited did not use tamper-evident bags to store their collections. Sixteen of them did not have at least two unrelated persons place and retrieve funds from the safe — a violation of offertory storage protocol. There were 26 instances where a log of tamper-evident bags was either not prepared, or filled in with inaccurate information.
Forty parishes did not have pastors indicate they reviewed their collection summaries. At seven parishes, the locations where the offertory collections were counted were not secure, allowing non-counters free access to the counting rooms. Three parishes did not do a mandatory recount of their offertory.
Diocesan finance officer Lisa Sakamoto said the audit is a good reminder to provide better training for parishes in these areas. It is also a wake-up call for further financial accountability across the diocese.
“Fraud is something that nobody wants to ever happen in our parishes,” said Sakamoto. “The parishes have to realize that they have to step up, too. They can’t simply ignore what is being asked of them to do when it’s for the good of the church.”
The offertory “is one area that is very simple to implement” key preventative measures, she said.
A few Hawaii parishes have been victims of offertory money theft in the past.
Sakamoto said it was heartening, however, to see that the parishes that passed the audits ranged from those well-staffed in urban communities, to smaller rural churches. It is a good sign, she said, that best practices can be carried out with even minimal resources.
“That was refreshing to know that it’s not a function of size, it’s a function of will,” she said.
Re-audits will be done for parishes that did not pass their initial inspection. The parishes will have to pay for these follow-up reviews until they finally are certified as properly executing all six areas of offertory control.
“We’re hoping by June 30 of 2014 we will have everybody having a certificate,” Sakamoto said. “The bishop is serious about all parishes being good stewards of our precious resources.”
Sakamoto said she hopes reviews of parish financial practices, including offertory protocols, will be done regularly at possible intervals of three years.
