State & Local Reports

The audit had three findings, consisting of the following issues: 1. Systems may not be utilized to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness in payroll processes, and the billing process for reimbursable expenses needs to be updated, automated, recorded, and tracked more efficiently in the County’s financial system.2. Staffing challenges continues to impact the Fire Department’s overtime expenditures and monitoring.3. Required rest periods and hours limitations needs to be evaluated to ensure the health and safety of employees.

Why This Inspection? The Auditor of Accounts (AOA) performed an inspection to ensure Fiscal Year 2017 Authorized Positions were not exceeded by comparing the number of authorized positions versus the number of actual positions a school district employed. In accordance with 14 Del. C. §1504, the Office of Auditor of Accounts is directed to examine the number of authorized positions versus the number of actual positions a district has employed as part of the regular, annual audit review for all public school districts that commence on or after July 1, 1991.During Fiscal Year 2017, the State budgeted approximately $922 million to cover the State’s share of salaries and benefits for school district authorized positions. School District personnel costs comprise 23% of the State’s budget. The Cape Henlopen, Lake Forest, and Christina School Districts were selected for review.General observations of the Fiscal Year 2017 Authorized Positions Inspection included: Improper recordkeeping A lack of reconciliation between the staffing plan and the payroll systemThroughout the inspection process, the AOA shared their observations with the Governor’s Government Efficiency and Accountability Review (GEAR) Board. GEAR’s recommendations encompassed documenting and improving critical processes, specifically improvements in tracking authorized school district positions relative to unit counts. The aforementioned observations will factor into future Authorized Positions inspections. For example, these engagements will focus on specific points of time rather than attempting to reconcile an entire fiscal year of data.

The Public Safety Section of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a compliance evaluation of the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD or the Department) review of randomly selected body-worn camera (BWC) recordings. Under Special Order S03-14 (the Special Order), the directive outlining BWC policy and procedures, CPD requires watch operations lieutenants (WOLs), across all watches, to review one recording daily. The purpose of these required reviews is for CPD supervisors to assess, among other areas, whether certain Department members are properly using BWCs and conducting themselves in accordance with CPD policy.OIG’s evaluation determined that CPD did not comply with this requirement. Specifically, OIG found that:1. CPD failed to complete all required random WOL reviews from November 2017 through March 2018 in seven districts reviewed by OIG; 2. CPD failed to implement a standardized process for randomly selecting BWC recordings for review;3. CPD failed to effectively monitor compliance with its random WOL review requirement, using definitions of compliance that are inconsistent and that do not allow CPD to determine whether WOLs are conducting randomized reviews in accordance with the Special Order; and4. CPD’s BWC Program Evaluation Committee (the Committee), which is tasked with ensuring BWC policy compliance with evaluating BWC program effectiveness, did not hold quarterly meetings in the third or fourth quarters of 2017, as required by the Special Order.