Audit of the University of Massachusetts Building Authority (December 18, 2025)

This is a state performance audit of the University of Massachusetts Building Authority, which manages major building projects for the UMass system.

“In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the University of Massachusetts Building Authority (UMBA) for the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.”

The auditor checked whether UMBA handled building safety inspections, contract procurement, and payroll certification properly during the audit period.

“The purpose of our audit was to determine the following:”

UMBA oversees expensive public university construction projects, so weak internal controls could make it harder to catch risks before they affect UMass facilities or operations.

“The absence of an updated ICP may hinder UMBA from identifying vulnerabilities that could prevent it from achieving its mission to assist and contribute to the performance of the educational and other purposes of the University of Massachusetts system.”

If you are a Massachusetts taxpayer, student, parent, or campus employee, this audit gives some assurance that sampled projects had required inspections and procurement controls, while pointing out one management weakness to fix.

“For this objective, we found no significant issues during our testing.”

The only audit finding was that UMBA did not update its internal control plan every year.

“UMBA did not update its internal control plan (ICP) annually.”

UMBA said it will formalize annual review procedures, and the auditor said the office will check back in about six months.

“As part of our post-audit review process, we will follow up on this matter in approximately six months.”

This was a limited finding: the auditor did not report major problems with the sampled building inspections, procurement, or payroll certification work, but wants UMBA to keep its control plan current.

“Therefore, we concluded that, based on our testing, UMBA sufficiently monitored and controlled the procurement of contracts in accordance with its internal policies and procedures and with Sections 44A–H of Chapter 149 and Sections 1–8 of Chapter 149A of the General Laws.”

An internal control plan is a written plan for how an organization identifies risks and uses procedures to prevent problems in its operations.

“These guidelines require that an ICP be based on a risk assessment and revised annually.”