Report 2015-047 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2015-047: The State Bar of California: Its Lack of Transparency Has Undermined Its Communications With Decision Makers and Stakeholders (Release Date: May 2016)

Recommendation #13 To: Bar of California, State

To make certain that its budget documents conform to the requirements in state law and that they are comparable to prior budgets, the State Bar should establish a process for ensuring that budget documents conform to the requirements in state law.

6-Month Agency Response

See attached Budget Polices, page 2.

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

The State Bar provided us with the following response, which is not reflected above: To ensure the consistency and completeness of the budget document preparation, staff also developed a checklist which identifies all criteria and elements that needs to be included in the annual budget document. Staff will implement this change when preparing the 2017 document for Board presentation and Legislative filing. The State Bar provided us with its Budget Policies and Procedures Manual, which includes a Budget Document Checklist.

60-Day Agency Response

To ensure the consistency and completeness of the budget document preparation, staff also developed a checklist which identifies all criteria and elements that needs to be included in the annual budget document. Staff will implement this changes when preparing the 2017 budget document for Board presentation and legislative filing.

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

We will review the implementation of this recommendation in 2017. We requested the checklist referenced in the agency response.

All Recommendations in 2015-047

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.