Report 2013-122 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2013-122: California Department of Toxic Substances Control: Its Lack of Diligence in Cost Recovery Has Contributed to Millions in Unbilled and Uncollected Costs (Release Date: August 2014)

Recommendation #1 To: Toxic Substances Control, Department of

To ensure that it maximizes opportunities to recover its costs, by January 2015, the department should develop a reporting function in its project management database to track and monitor the statute of limitations expiration dates for its projects.

6-Month Agency Response

Completion Date: January 2015
Response Date: February 2015

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

DTSC completed work on a cost recovery page in its project management database (EnviroStor) in June 2014 as part of the Department's Fixing the Foundation initiative. This page includes data fields for tracking and monitoring potential statutes of limitations (SOL) dates. DTSC created a work plan in August 2014 that outlines an implementation timeline to populate the SOL data fields and to create a reporting function to track pending SOL expirations. Data for sites identified in the Office of the State Auditor's report with potentially pending SOLs are scheduled to be in place in January 2015. The reporting function will facilitate the tracking and monitoring of site SOLs before they expire. SOL reporting is scheduled to be in place in January 2015. DTSC continues to resolve issues impeding cost recovery efforts on sites with outstanding cost balances of $1 million or more with or without pending SOL dates and sites with pending SOL dates less than $1 million.

Estimated Completion Date: January 2015
Response Date: October 2014

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2013-122

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.