Report 2019-121 Recommendations
When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below, is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor's assessment of auditee's response based on our review of the supporting documentation.
Recommendations in Report 2019-121: California Department of Food and Agriculture: Poor Management Threatens the Success of the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program (Release Date: March 2020)
| Recommendations to Food and Agriculture, Department of | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number | Recommendation | Status |
| 1 | In order to ensure a fair and defensible grant award process for the Pet Lover's program, Food and Agriculture should immediately adopt and begin following policies and procedures that direct its staff to verify and document that grant applicants are eligible for funding from the Pet Lover's program before forwarding the applications to the technical review panel. |
Fully Implemented |
| 2 | In order to ensure a fair and defensible grant award process for the Pet Lover's program, Food and Agriculture should immediately adopt and begin following policies and procedures that direct its staff to have multiple reviewers score each application that progresses to a technical review. |
Fully Implemented |
| 3 | In order to ensure a fair and defensible grant award process for the Pet Lover's program, Food and Agriculture should immediately adopt and begin following policies and procedures that direct its staff to select the highest-ranked applications to receive grant awards, and document the reasons for these selections. |
Fully Implemented |
| 4 | To correct its error in making grants to ineligible entities, by June 2020 Food and Agriculture should complete efforts to either cancel those contracts and recoup unspent funds from the two ineligible organizations or work with those organizations to ensure that they meet eligibility requirements. |
Fully Implemented |
| 5 | To ensure that the Pet Lover's program remains viable, Food and Agriculture should immediately begin using marketing and promotional strategies similar to those used by other specialized license plate programs to encourage vehicle owners to purchase the Pet Lover's plate, and should continue to ensure that the Pet Lover's plate remains on DMV flyers. |
Fully Implemented |
| 6 | To improve the effectiveness of marketing of the Pet Lover's program, by August 2020 Food and Agriculture should contract with an eligible nonprofit organization, as state law allows, to carry out additional marketing and promotional activities for the program. |
Will Not Implement |
| Recommendations to Legislature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number | Recommendation | Status |
| 7 | To ensure the continued benefits of the specialized license plate programs, the Legislature should revise state law to allow a specialized license plate program to continue, regardless of the number of plates, unless the DMV or the agency determines that the program is no longer financially viable or no longer supports the purposes of the program. |
No Action Taken |