Report 2014-121 Recommendation 2 Responses

Report 2014-121: University of California, Davis: It Has Not Identified Future Financing for the Strawberry Breeding Program nor Collected All Available Revenues (Release Date: June 2015)

Recommendation #2 To: University of California, Davis

The department should prepare a balanced budget for each fiscal year that details how it will fund the strawberry breeding program. In addition, it should begin comparing actual income and expenses to the budget periodically to ensure that the program is operating in a cost-efficient manner and is adequately funded.

1-Year Agency Response

The Strawberry Breeding Program (SBP) budget has been established. The Plant Sciences department completes a quarterly "budget versus actual expense" analysis. Analysis for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2015-16 provided.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

UC Davis provided a copy of its budget for fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17. UC Davis also provided documentation showing that it is comparing budgeted vs actual costs quarterly.

6-Month Agency Response

The Strawberry Breeder and Plant Sciences Department Chair have developed and submitted a budget request to the CA&ES dean's office on October 30, 2015. The CA&ES dean's office plans to review this budget request in the next couple weeks and hopefully reach a conclusion by the end of December 2015.

Once the budget is finalized it will be used to perform the budget to actual analysis of the first two quarters of fiscal year 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

- The CA&ES dean's office has been working with the Plant Sciences department chair, chief administrative officer, and new strawberry breeder Steve Knapp to develop a balanced budget for the Strawberry Breeding Program. As of September 15, 2015 a rough draft budget has been developed. It is currently under review and expected to be finalized by October 15, 2015.

- Plant Sciences has developed a budget to actual worksheet for the Strawberry Breeding Program. It will be reported quarterly for periods July-September, October-December, January-March and April-June.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2014-121

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.