The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1516-6 Follow-up report on DA Transition (Final 2-9-16)Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 FOLLOW-UP REPORT Elected District Attorney Transition (Internal audit report #14/15-4 issued February 2015) To request this information in an alternate format, please call (541) 330-4674 or send email to David.Givans@Deschutes.org Deschutes County, Oregon David Givans, CPA, CIA, CGMA Deschutes County Internal Auditor PO Box 6005 1300 NW Wall St Bend, OR 97708-6005 (541) 330-4674 David.Givans@Deschutes.og Audit committee: Shawn Armstrong, Chair - Public member Chris Earnest - Public member Lindsey Lombard – Public member Michael Shadrach - Public member Jennifer Welander - Public member Anthony DeBone, County Commissioner Nancy Blankenship, County Clerk Dan Despotopulos, Fair & Expo Director Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background ………………………………………...………………................................... 1 1.2. Objectives & Scope ……………………………………..………………………….…….… 1 1.3. Methodology ……………………………………………………..…………………….……. 1 2. FOLLOW-UP RESULTS ……………….…...………………………….............................. 2 3. APPENDIX 3.1. Appendix I – Updated Workplan for Report #14/15-4 (Status as of December 2015) ......................................................................... 3-5 Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 1 1. Introduction 1.1 BACKGROUND Audit Authority: The Deschutes County Audit Committee has suggested that follow-ups occur from nine months to one year after the original report issuance. The Audit Committee’s would like to make sure departments satisfactorily address recommendations. 1.2 OBJECTIVES and SCOPE Objectives: The objective was to follow-up on the outstanding audit recommendations. Scope: The follow-up included seven (7) recommendations from the internal audit report on Elected District Attorney Transition (#14/15-4 issued February 2015). The follow-up reflects the status as of December 2015. The original internal audit report should be referenced for the full text of recommendations and discussion. 1.3 METHODOLOGY The follow-up report was developed from information provided by John Hummel, District Attorney. In cases where recommendations have not been implemented, comments were sought for the reasons why and the timing for addressing these. The follow-up is, by nature, subjective. In determining the status of recommendations that were followed up, we relied on assertions provided by those involved and did not attempt to independently verif y those assertions. The updates received from the District Attorney’s Office are included in the Appendix. Since no substantive audit work was performed, Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States were not followed. DESCHUTES COUNTY INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT DESCHUTES COUNTY INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT DESCHUTES COUNTY INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 2 2. Follow-up Results Figure I - How were recommendations implemented? The follow-up included seven (7) recommendations. Management agreed with all of the recommendations. Figure I provides an overview of the implementation status of the recommendations. The details of the updated workplan are provided in Appendix I. With this follow-up one hundred percent (100%) of the recommendations are completed. The District Attorney’s Office should be commended for addressing all of these recommendations by the first follow-up. Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 3 3. Appendix Appendix I – Updated Workplan for Report #14/15-4 (Status as of December 2015) Rec# Recommendation Original Department Comments Current Status UPDATED COMMENTS 1 Controls Identified to strengthen use of checking account and change monies by: 1 (a.) Maintaining check register to monitor ongoing balances of funds DA's Office will create and maintain a ledger in Excel and track reconciliations in real time. The "Official" register will continue to reside in the County Finance Department which will allow that department to reconcile unclaimed property on an annual basis. Complete District Attorney’s Office currently maintains a real time ledger in excel to track reconciliations and money spent out of the BOA account. This ledger is updates every time there is expenditure and each month when the account is reconciled. 1 (b.) Resolving current outstanding items on the bank reconciliation and periodically review the bank reconciliation prepared by the County Finance Department Outstanding items have been reviewed with staff in the County Finance Department. It was determined that these outstanding items should have been allocated to witness fees. This allocation occurred in our January reimbursement report to the County Finance Department. And, as discussed above, the DA’s office will maintain a ledger to monitor ongoing balances of funds. Complete All old outstanding balances were submitted for reimbursement on 6/9/2015. The outstanding items were allocated to witness fees. The reconciliation check was deposited into the BOA account on 6/22/2015. 1 (c.) Eliminating the change cash funds that are no longer needed DA’s office will prepare a petty cash report then seek the assistance of the County Finance Department to draft the appropriate resolution to eliminate these accounts Complete Change funds have been returned to finance and the authorization rescinded. 1 (d.) Having the originator of deposits compare the deposit receipt from Finance to what was prepared. DA’s office will create an accounting system to enable us to conduct this verification. Complete 2 It is recommended for the County to consider establishing whether it needs additional policies or procedures for debit cards issued on County bank accounts. DA’s office will request approval for a credit card connected to our Bank of America account. Once this approval is obtained, we will cancel our debit card. Complete The debit card has been eliminated. The DA's Office has requested and received a credit card under the oversight of Finance. Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 4 Rec# Recommendation Original Department Comments Current Status UPDATED COMMENTS 3 It is recommended the department to complete documentation of their discovery billing and receipting procedures. DA’s office will develop and implement a policy to track and collect outstanding discovery billings. Complete 4 It is recommended the District Attorney’s Office list all fees for services relating to discovery in the County fee schedule. In February of 2015, DA’s office submitted a request to the County Finance Department for approval for these fees. Complete Included in FY 2015 fee schedule. 5 It is recommended for the District Attorney's Office to reconsider whether some of their IT services could be performed more effectively and efficiently through arrangements with County IT. Agreed that it’s appropriate to discuss whether and how additional collaboration between the DA’s IT Department and the County’s IT Department should occur. Over the next few months, the DA will meet with staff members in the County IT Department to discuss this issue. If areas of potential additional collaboration are identified, the DA will assess whether these additional collaboration opportunities would improve the DA’s service delivery and what the cost impact would be. If a particular additional collaboration opportunity would improve service delivery and save money, it will be implemented. If a particular additional collaboration opportunity would hinder service delivery, it will not be implemented. If a particular additional collaboration opportunity would improve service delivery, but cost additional money, the DA will assess whether the improved service delivery is worth the additional cost. If the DA determines the additional level of customer service is worth the additional concomitant cost, the DA will include the additional cost in his next budget request to the Board of County Commissioners. Complete The District Attorney’s office has worked closely with county IT over the past months to create a more cohesive relationship. These discussions have most recently led to our office utilizing a county IT employee to provide coverage for an IT employee on FMLA. Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 5 Rec# Recommendation Original Department Comments Current Status UPDATED COMMENTS 6 It is recommended for the Victims' Assistance program to target use of non-fee prepaid cards for providing client support or monitor use to minimize potential fees. Victims’ Assistance Program will prioritize exhausting our current supply of pre-paid cards and in the future will only purchase non-fee prepaid cards. Complete 7 It is recommended for the District Attorney’s Office to assess, develop and publish consistent performance measurement data to demonstrate the quality of the services they provide to the public and to help consistently assess the direction the Office is taking and its effectiveness. DA’s office will submit new and improved performance measures with our FY 15-16 budget Complete The District Attorney has developed and monitored more tangible performance measures. Each performance measure can be represented by a real time number. The following measures have been used for the FY 15-16 budget: 1. Total cases filed, broken down by felony, misdemeanor, juvenile delinquency, juvenile dependency, civil commitment. Average annual cases filed per DDA are shown. (Safe Communities #3) 2. Total cases reviewed. Average annual cases reviewed per DDA are shown. (Safe Communities #3) 3. Number of contact with victims in active cases by staff in Victims’ Assistance Program (Safe Communities #3) 4. Partner with Sheriff, Circuit Court, defense counsel and other community partners on at least one initiative to reduce the adult jail’s pre- trial population. (Safe Communities #2/ Healthy People #4) 5. Driving under the influence of intoxicants trial conviction rate (Safe Communities #3) 6. Driving under the influence of intoxicants diversion program success rate (Safe Communities #2) 7. Average elapsed time to final disposition (in days) for adult misdemeanor cases (Safe Communities #3) 8. Results from customer service survey of people assisted by Victims’ Assistance Program staff (Safe Communities #3 / Quality Service Delivery #5) Follow-up report of Elected District Attorney Transition #15/16-6 February 2016 Page 6 {END OF REPORT}