The Friends of Mississippi Parks, Inc., is a nonprofit corporation designed to offer citizens of Mississippi an opportunity to make tax deductible donations to the state park system. Because of direct involvement of state employees and their spouses in the Friends’ fiscal operations, PEER reviewed the organization’s working relationship with the Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Recreation and Parks. The Friends organization could significantly benefit the state’s parks system. However, neither the Bureau of Recreation and Parks nor the Friends group has established written procedures to govern the relationship. This has resulted in a lack of adequate internal controls over receipts, noncompliance with Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements, and inadequate documentation of advertising sales commissions.
For a paper copy of this report, contact PEER by telephone at 601-359-1226 or by e-mail at reports@peer.ms.gov.