HomeMy Public PortalAboutBrewster 2008 Management Letter TOWN OF BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS
MANAGEMENT LETTER
JUNE 30 , 2008
R. E . BROWN & COMPANY
CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
25 CEMETERY STREET — P. O. Box 230
Mendon, Massachusetts 01756
Phone : (508) 478 -3941 Fax: (508) 4784779
To the Honorable Board of Selectmen
Town of Brewster, Massachusetts
In planning and performing our audit of the basic financial statements of the Town of
Brewster, Massachusetts , for the fiscal year ended June 30 , 2008 , we considered the
Town ' s internal control in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose
of expressing an opinion on the financial statements and not to provide assurance on
internal control .
However, during our audit we became aware of matters that are opportunities for
strengthening internal controls and operating efficiency . The memorandum that
accompanies this letter summarizes our comments and recommendations concerning
those matters .
This letter does not affect our report dated June 1 , 2009 , on the basic financial
statements of the Town of Brewster, Massachusetts .
The accompanying comments and recommendations are intended solely for the
information and use by the management of the Town of Brewster, Massachusetts ,
and are not intended to be used by anyone other than the specified party .
We will review the status of these comments during our next audit engagement. We
have already discussed many of these comments and recommendations with various
Town personnel , and we will be pleased to discuss them in further detail at your
convenience , to perform any additional study of these matters , or to assist you in
implementing the recommendations .
Sincerely,
jq. E. Xwtua eam par g
June 1 , 2009
TOWN OF BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS
MANAGEMENT LETTER
JUNE 309 2008
STATUS OF PRIOR YEAR' S FINDING — RESOLUTION IN PROCESS
DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN
Finding
The Town does not have a disaster recovery plan for financial operations .
Recommendation
The Town should consider implementing a disaster recovery plan . This plan would coordinate how
the Town business would operate if faced with a major computer failure or natural disaster .
• Identify critical functions and personnel for continued operations and recovery.
• Planning for alternative worksites for critical operations .
• Identify and document manual procedures required in the event of loss of data processing
systems .
Management Corrective Action Plan
IT Disaster Recovery - All financial and permit data held on our computer systems is automatically
backed up daily via the internet to an offsite secure data center managed by Mozy/EMC corporation.
This may be retrieved via the internet or by DVD -ROM . In addition to disaster recovery copies, 30
days of archives are also retained .
All servers are now run as "virtual machines" through VMWare server and are backed up nightly to
an external hard drive . In the event of an impending disaster such as a hurricane, this can be
physically removed and safely stored or moved to an offsite location . Once attached to any
Windows PC , these servers could be reactivated in a remote environment or temporary business
location in a matter of minutes allowing extreme flexibility to meet both temporary and permanent
relocation and restoration of financial operations . In the event of an unanticipated disaster, annual
archive DVD ROM copies of servers are retained both on and off site and servers could be copied to
any PC , activated, and current data restored from online backup .
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