Audit New Zealand's Management Report on the inner workings of Tauranga City Council is advising the city tighten up cash handling relating to the flood of parking meter coins.

The report to be received at this afternoon's Finance and Risk Committee says council security should be improved for parking meter coinage.

The way Tauranga City Council deals with coins collected in parking meters is one of the processes commented on in an Audit NZ report to be presented at council this afternoon.

Cash collected from parking meters is currently kept in the coin room until banked. While the room is locked, the report states a number of staff members have access to the key. It also says the safe in the coin room isn't used because there are too many coins to fit in the safe.

While there is a CCTV camera in the coin room, the footage is not reviewed, and it's kept only 10 days.

The report recommends the key be kept in a new place with fewer people having access and coins should be banked more than once a week, so less cash is stored in the room.

Security camera footage should be subject to random checks, and the safe should be used – or a larger one bought.

Council staff say the room's key is now in a new location that fewer people know about. A security company now picks up the coins every week, and steps are being taken to regularly monitor the security camera recording.

There is also a recommendation the customer service area's financial security be stepped up. Customer service area tills have a generic logon and password. It means staff are less likely to be held accountable for discrepancies in the tills.

ANZ recommends each cashier have an unique logon and password to access the cash receipting system, to improve segregation of duties and ensure that all transactions are traced back to the cashier who processed it.

Audit New Zealand also discovered that city council staff have been issued with P-Cards with credit limits exceeding the amount allowed in the purchasing policy. It means staff are exceeding their assigned credit limits.

The audit report also comments on TCC's sensitive expenditure policy.

The council doesn't keep a staff gift register. Current policy allows staff to redeem for personal use air points earned on business travel.

Tauranga City Council doesn't have a credit card policy in place, and the council doesn't have guidelines for rewarding employees.

The staff reply is the TCC doesn't have credit cards, therefore no policy is required.

Audit New Zealand's sampling of transactions found only one transaction this year incorrectly coded. Accommodation expenses during training are coded as general expenses or staff training or travel/accommodation/conference.

Last year ANZ found one TCC transaction, which did not have appropriate supporting documentation (for example tax invoices] and three transactions which were incorrectly coded.

TCC staff are going to be reminded of their responsibilities.

Audit New Zealand is also recommending the council document the financial interests of senior management. Currently it only documents the interests of city councillors.

ANZ is recommending a formal list of senior management interests be compiled and reviewed every six months, to avoid potential conflicts of interest.