**PRESS RELEASE**
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2019
Audit Highlights Need for Improved Asset Tracking
Contact information: Brianna Ludwig, North Dakota State Auditor’s Office, 701-328-2453, bsludwig@nd.gov
State Auditor Joshua Gallion today released an audit of the North Dakota Information Technology Division which shows from July 2016 through June 2018, the agency was responsible for tracking 6,500 assets totaling more than $25 million dollars and failed to find 217 of those assets. These assets include office equipment, network equipment and computer equipment. During the audit, we also found that 24 out of the 217 assets could have sensitive information on them.
"To safeguard assets, a thorough asset inventory management process is necessary and required by OMB,” Auditor Gallion said. “It’s concerning that we have assets out there which could have sensitive information on them and ITD could not find them."
While ITD does encrypt to secure sensitive information, previous audits found that not all assets were encrypted. With the IT unification of five more agencies coming under ITD’s umbrella, it is imperative that ITD develop an adequate annual inventory management process.
This audit is a result of the State Auditor’s Office statutory responsibility to audit or review each state agency once every two years. The complete audit report can be found on our website, http://bit.ly/ITDAudit.