An auditor notes year-to-year increases of over $200,000 for small tool expense at a manufacturing facility that has produced the same amount of identical product for the last 3 years. Production inventory is kept in a controlled staging area adjacent to the receiving dock, but the supply of small tools is kept in an unsupervised area near the exit to the plant employees’ parking lot. After determining that all of the following alternatives are equal in cost and are also feasible for local management, the auditor can best address the security issue by recommending that plant management
Move the small tools inventory to the custody of the production inventory staging superintendent and implement the use of a special requisition to issue small tools.
Physical control of assets is a preventive control that reduces the likelihood of theft or other loss. Giving responsibility for custody of small tools to one individual establishes accountability. Requiring that requisitions be submitted ensures that tool use is properly authorized.