Report 2009-030 Recommendation 15 Responses

Report 2009-030: State Bar of California: It Can Do More to Manage Its Disciplinary System and Probation Processes Effectively and to Control Costs (Release Date: July 2009)

Recommendation #15 To: Bar of California, State

To ensure that it has adequate internal controls in place, the State Bar should fully implement recommendations from audits and reviews of the State Bar and its functions.

1-Year Agency Response

In its 60-day response, the State Bar indicated that it had completed this recommendation. According to the response to the audit report, the State Bar stated that it had implemented changes in its manual and automated processes and controls to address issues raised in the 2007 report on its cost recovery process. These processes and controls apply to the new cost recovery system. Because it did not inform us of these changes until after it had received a draft copy of our report, we were not able to verify whether these changes fully address our concerns. As part of our next statutorily required audit, we plan to review the cost recovery system to determine whether the new system corrects the identified issues.

The State Bar retained a consultant that reports directly to the Board's Audit Committee, to perform an internal audit function. The State Bar's internal auditors began a review of all internal audit functions to assess risks associated with its organization-wide internal control functions, provide training to staff, and recommend improvements to strengthen internal controls. The consultant completed internal audits of the State Bar's payroll, accounts payable, procurement, and budget control functions in July 2010. According to the State Bar it will implement all recommendations contained in the audit reports before the end of 2010. (See 2011-406 p. 72)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2009-030

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.