NDSU, Minot State shoring up shaky bookkeeping at Dickinson, Bottineau

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota State University and Minot State University are helping two smaller colleges balance their books as the state University System looks to establish a more long-term policy for shared services such as accounting.

Campus and North Dakota University Systems leaders on Tuesday briefed legislators on how the larger campuses are helping resolve accounting issues identified by the state Auditor’s Office.

Staffing challenges are blamed for creating some accounting issues at Dickinson State University and Dakota College at Bottineau, officials told the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee.

NDSU is helping clean up the books for Dickinson State and expects to continue to provide financial services for DSU.

Bruce Bollinger, NDSU vice president for finance and administration, said it can be a challenge to find employees with the skills needed for managing the finances at a college.

With staff turnover, that led Dickinson State to not having had its books reconciled since July 2022.

David Krebsbach, deputy commissioner and chief financial officer for the University System, said a draft policy for how North Dakota’s larger colleges can support the smaller colleges is in the works.

The state Auditor’s Office last year identified problems with the bookkeeping at Dakota College and Dickinson State.

At Dakota College, unreconciled transactions ranged between about $75,000 to nearly $363,000 for each of four months that were reviewed. That led to a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars between the college’s financial records and its bank balances, the report showed.

Dakota College at Bottineau is already under the supervision of Minot State.

Minot State President Steve Shirley said Tuesday that Dakota College’s finances are “in a much much better place” than before Minot State stepped in with accounting help in November.

The audit report on Dickinson State showed a lack of documentation for financial transactions. It also said the college charged students for fees without justification and that tuition waivers were granted without properly documenting the student’s eligibility.

NDSU started helping Dickinson State in December. Bollinger said his staff had not identified any fraudulent behavior.

NDSU staff said they hoped to be caught up on reviewing Dickinson State’s financial transactions by the end of April.

Travis Aho of the NDSU accounting office cited short staffing and entries being made incorrectly or not in a timely manner while reviewing DSU’s books.

“Not the best work being done throughout the last few years,” Aho said.

Scott Molander, who became president at Dickinson State last year, expressed gratitude for NDSU’s help.

“There’s been wonderful collaboration with NDSU,” Molander said.

He said Dickinson State is compensating NDSU for its work.

Karin Hegstad, NDSU associate vice president for finance and administration, said taking on Dickinson State has meant extra hours and work for her staff, but the workload should ease up.

“It’s very time intensive up front,” Hegstad said. “Once DSU is integrated, it should be a much easier process.”

Bollinger said NDSU is happy to share its resources and expertise with other schools.

“We’re making Dickinson more efficient. We’re making the University System more efficient,” Bollinger said.

Reach North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com.