Report I2016-1 Recommendation 11 Responses
Report I2016-1: Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees: Misuse of State Resources, Forgery, False Time Reporting, Financial Interests Disclosure Violations, and Waste of State Funds (Release Date: February 2016)
Case Number I2014-1576
Recommendation #11 To: Water Resources, Department of
Water Resources should require the last official who approves an employee's expense claim for job-required and job-related training to forward that claim to the training division, the division of fiscal services, or both, for a separate review of the employee's training forms and supporting documents before Water Resources reimburses the employee.
Agency Response From December 2017
Water Resources reported that in mid-December 2017, it will implement its new management system. In the system, when an employee requests external training, the request must be approved by the employee's supervisor and routed to an assigned travel coordinator to review documentation for accuracy and to ensure that sufficient funding is available. In addition, an employee's training plan for college-level courses and upward mobility and career-related training must be approved by the employee's supervisor and routed to the training chief for review against the employee's expense claim for cost reimbursement upon completion of the training. Further, Water Resources stated that the new system will allow continuous monitoring of employee training expenses by supervisors, training coordinators, and training division personnel.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented
Agency Response From April 2017
Water Resources plans to implement in 2018 a management system that should provide continuous monitoring of employee training expenditures. Until its intended management system is operational, training office staff and fiscal services staff will complete spot reviews of job-required and job-related training reimbursement packages.
Water Resources provided us with documentation of its spot reviews. Subsequently, we requested additional details about the spot reviews, such as their frequency and any associated findings. Without this information, we could not ascertain whether the reviews sufficiently met the intent of the recommendation, which was to provide a separate review of the job-required and job-related training from individuals other than the approving officials.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From December 2016
Water Resources provided a travel expense claim audit operating procedure for job-required and job-related expense claim packages. We requested that Water Resources also provide its monthly spot audits since July 2016 as well as the first quarterly review by the fiscal services supervisor and office chief. Water Resources subsequently provided a spreadsheet tracking the number of travel expense claims sampled for review each month from July through November 2016, but it did not provide its quarterly review.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From July 2016
Water Resources reported that it implemented spot checks. We requested that Water Resources provide more details surrounding the spot checks, such as how frequently the spot checks would occur, whether the selections are random, and any findings from the spot checks it has completed.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
Agency Response From April 2016
Water Resources stated that supervisors and managers are responsible for approving reimbursements for training within their limits, in accordance with its policy and procedures. Thus, given the magnitude of the number of job-related and job-required training courses, Water Resources stated that it does not believe another level of review and approval is necessary or required.
Currently, Water Resources' fiscal services staff reviews expense claims. Until its intended management system is operational, which should provide continuous monitoring of employee training expenditures, training office staff and fiscal services staff will complete spot reviews of job-related and job-required training reimbursement packages. Once Water Resources has conducted these spot reviews and reported its results to our office, we will evaluate whether this temporary solution is adequate.