Report 2017-129 Recommendation 3 Responses
Report 2017-129: Department of Rehabilitation: Its Inadequate Guidance and Oversight of the Grant Process Led to Inconsistencies and Perceived Bias in Its Evaluations and Awards of Some Grants (Release Date: July 2018)
Recommendation #3 To: Rehabilitation, Department of
To comply with state laws and regulations and help ensure that staff involved in making governmental decisions during the grant process are impartial, Rehabilitation should ensure that they receive ethics training, which includes conflict-of-interest training, at least every two years.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023
The Department is currently developing a Request for Applications for Traumatic Brain Injury and expects to award grants in or about July 2024. Thereafter, the Department will submit documentation demonstrating full implementation of this recommendation.
- Estimated Completion Date: August 2024
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022
The Department finalized a Request for Application (RFA) for the Traumatic Brain Injury program in March 2022 and will provide the documentation to the CSA contact showing the Department recevied and verified that the ethics training was current for each staff person involved in the RFA process.
- Completion Date: March 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
Rehabilitation has established a process to monitor completion of ethics training by its staff members. To demonstrate that it had implemented this process, Rehabilitation provided us with ethics training certificates for seven individuals involved in the Traumatic Brain Injury program grant, which it finalized in March 2022. However, three of the seven training certificates expired before the onset of the grant. As a result, Rehabilitation has not ensured that the staff involved in making governmental decisions during the grant process were impartial. We look forward to Rehabilitation being able to demonstrate full implementation of its process it its future responses.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021
The Department's Human Resources Section is responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. Human Resources Section reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the task.
The Department put out a Request for Application (RFA) for the Traumatic Brain Injury Program September 2021. Per CSA's request the Department will provide documentation that will demonstrate full implementation of the CSA recommendation after grant award.
- Estimated Completion Date: 1/2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020
The Department's Labor Relations Officer (LRO) is its Filing Officer responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. The LRO reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the tasks. The Department has attached a description of the process the LRO uses to conduct their monitoring of completion of ethics training and has attached verification that the process has been implemented for compliance period 2017-2018.
- Completion Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
Although Rehabilitation has established a process for monitoring some staff's completion of ethics training, it does not require all staff involved in the grant process to complete such training. Additionally, for the most recent grant that it administered, Rehabilitation did not demonstrate that all staff involved in the grant completed ethics training. Until Rehabilitation can demonstrate it has addressed these shortcomings, we will continue to report the status of this recommendation as not fully implemented.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
The Department's Labor Relations Officer (LRO) is its Filing Officer responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. The LRO reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the tasks. The Department has attached a description of the process the LRO uses to conduct their monitoring of completion of ethics training and has attached verification that the process has been implemented for compliance period 2017-2018.
- Completion Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
The Department's Labor Relations Officer (LRO) is its Filing Officer responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. The LRO reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the tasks. The Department has previously provided a description of the process the LRO uses to conduct their monitoring of completion of ethics training, and has implemented verification that the process for compliance period 2017-2018
- Completion Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
Rehabilitation has established a process to monitor completion of ethics training by its staff members. However, we will continue to report this recommendation as partially implemented until it can demonstrate compliance with the new process during its next administration of a grant.
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
1-Year Agency Response
The Department's Labor Relations Officer (LRO) is its Filing Officer responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. The LRO reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the tasks. The Department has attached a description of the process the LRO uses to conduct their monitoring of completion of ethics training and has attached verification that the process has been implemented for compliance period 2017-2018.
- Completion Date: January 2019
- Response Date: July 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented
Rehabilitation has established a process to monitor completion of ethics training by its staff members. Although the department has demonstrated that it is working toward full compliance, we look forward to revisiting its implementation of the process upon its next administration of a grant.
6-Month Agency Response
The Department's Labor Relations Officer (LRO) is its Filing Officer responsible for monitoring that DOR staff receive ethics training in compliance with state laws and regulations. The LRO reminds staff to complete these tasks and notifies the staff member's supervisor and Deputy Director, as appropriate, if the staff member has not timely completed the tasks. The Department has attached a description of the process the LRO uses to conduct their monitoring of completion of ethics training, and has attached verification that the process has been implemented for compliance period 2017-2018.
- Completion Date: January 2019
- Response Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
Rehabilitation has established a process to monitor completion of ethics training by its staff members. Although the department has demonstrated that it is working toward full compliance, we look forward to revisiting its implementation of the process upon its next administration of a grant.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
60-Day Agency Response
The Department reinstituted the practice to identify any staff who must complete the ethics training and who has not done so timely, through monitoring of the documentation by the Ethics Officer (Labor Relations Officer)who will notify the Deputy Director when any employee is not current. The Department will provide documentation to demonstrate implementation of this practice at the next reporting period.
- Estimated Completion Date: January 2019
- Response Date: October 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-129
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.