FINDINGS, CONCLUDIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
NONCOMPLIANCE WITH STATUTORY MANDATES
The Department has over 600 statutory mandates covering over 200 individual
programs and functions, many of which have been in place since the early 1980’s. For
some of the mandates, the Department believes compliance is not possible due to lack of
funding and other factors. In other cases, mandates are no longer relevant or applicable.
During the current and prior audit periods, we sampled mandates and found the
Department to be noncompliant with several. During the current audit period, the
Department was found noncompliant with 10 mandates, including:
The Department needs to take a comprehensive approach to addressing statutory mandates.
During the previous fiscal year, the Department formed a Task Force to review mandates and
programs to identify those that are obsolete, not feasible, not practical or otherwise not
able to be performed. (Finding 00-1, pages 18-20) This finding has been repeated since
1990.
We recommended the Department allocate sufficient resources to address this
problem. The Department agreed, stating the Task Force has identified and clarified
mandates and each of those noted in this finding will be analyzed and addressed. (For
previous Department responses, see Digest footnote #1)
PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT NOT LOCATED
The fixed asset inventory listing contained 110 items of equipment, valued at
$249,000, that could not be found at locations specified. Some of the equipment appeared
to be field equipment, such as an anaerobic digester ($50,000), a manure handling system
with scraper ($2,200), and six 1,000 gallon fuel tanks ($2,600 each).
The fixed asset inventory control listing also contained an additional 21 locations
with missing inventory (757 items of equipment valued at $464,000). These items could not
be located by the Department.
The Department was aware of the above discrepancies but no action was taken to write
off unlocated items because sufficient research into the cause had not been performed.
(Finding 00-2, pages 21-22).
We recommended the Department perform a complete equipment inventory and update its
inventory listing. Fixed assets that cannot be located should be investigated and, if
appropriate, written off.
The Department agreed, stating that by the end of 2000, it had already conducted a
complete inventory, revised the property control manual, and written off $237,500 of
equipment. The remainder was determined to have been surplused or to have been former
Department of Energy and Natural Resource’s inventory that should not have been on
the Department of Commerce and Community Affair’s inventory.
OTHER FINDINGS
The other findings were less significant. We will review progress toward
implementation of all recommendations in our next compliance audit.
AUDITORS’ OPINION
Our auditors stated the Department’s financial statements as of June 30,
2000 were presented fairly in all material respects.
___________________________________
WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General
WGH:KMC:pp
SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS
Our special assistant auditors for this audit were Friedman Eisenstein Raemer
and Schwartz, LLP.
DIGEST FOOTNOTE
#1 NONCOMPLIANCE WITH STATUTORY MANDATES – Previous Agency Responses.
1999: "Agree. The Task Force was formed in April, 1999. The committee has
identified DCCA's unfunded mandates and unfunded permissive legislation. This identified
legislation is currently under review to determine whether the legislation should be
rescinded or amended. The next stage will be reviewing all funded mandates and permissive
legislation to determine if clarification or rescission of the legislation is necessary.
The statutes noted in this finding will be specifically addressed by the Department."
1998: "The Department will form a task force to review the statutory mandates. Current
Year Issue 1. The Department will review the Export Trading Company Act to determine
if it should be rescinded. Prior Year Issue 1-3. The Department will pursue
legislation to rescind this legislation."
1996: "Accepted. A) Corridors of Opportunity and Development Act The
Department will pursue legislation to rescind this Act. B) Local Government The
Department will pursue legislation to amend this Act to reflect the current activities
performed under the Act. C) Unfunded Mandates". (Response goes on to list four
other mandates to which each the Department stated it will pursue legislation to rescind
this Act.)
1994 "The Department "Agreed" to
the recommendation to pursue legislation to have three of the five identified mandates
rescinded. It "Partially Agreed" to the recommendation for the other two
mandates, indicating they would attempt to amend the statute to more accurately reflect
the Department’s approach and resources for one of the mandates. In the case of the
other mandate they indicated there was no funding currently available, but thought the
program may be revised in future years and therefore would not take any action to rescind
the statute."
1992: "Partially Agree. We concur with the finding and recommendation only to the
extent that the Department has on several occasions tried to recommend legislation to
either fund or rescind various cited provisions." (Response continues with
explanations of past efforts and efforts to be undertaken.)
1990: "We concur with the finding and recommendation only to the extent that the
Department has on several occasions tried to recommend legislation to rescind various of
the cited provisions, and in at least one example, has almost been successful in securing
funding for the requirement." (Response continues with explanations of past efforts
and efforts to be undertaken.)
