Bureau of Internal Audit

Mission

The mission of the Bureau of Internal Audit is to assist the Secretary and the Department in ensuring that: (1) agency goals are met; (2) all resources are used consistent with laws, regulations, and policies; (3) all resources are safeguarded against waste, loss, and misuse; and (4) reliable data is obtained, maintained, and fully disclosed.

Goals

Our primary purpose is to take a proactive approach in meeting our agency's needs and protecting its resources. Toward that end, we have established four key goals:

• Provide quality audits, reviews, studies, and investigations
• Report results to management in a timely manner
• Use agency resources efficiently; and
• Provide adequate audit coverage to mitigate risks.

Bureau Organization and Responsibilities

The Bureau of Internal Audit is divided into three distinct organizational units and is administered by the Chief Internal Auditor. The three units in the Bureau are the Internal Audit Section, Contract Systems Analysis Section and the ACA Accreditation Section. The Bureau employs 18 professional and two support staff.

Selected Bureau Reports With System-Wide Impact

The Bureau views its audit and contract analysis mandate as an opportunity to not only identify site specific deficiencies, but to identify problems with a state-wide impact. Some of the audits and contract assessments with statewide impact the Bureau of Internal Audit conducted this fiscal year included:

Purchasing Card Program

We determined that the department's internal control environment for the purchasing card program is adequate; however, weaknesses were noted that, in our judgement, have the potential to adversely affect the integrity of the program.

We found: that cardholders generally are not complying with established purchasing card guidelines, that purchasing card transaction documentation is missing, that required reviews were not documented on two-thirds of purchasing card transmittal envelopes examined, and that the Department does not have a finalized Purchasing Card procedure.

Management concurred with our findings and recommendations and has taken appropriate action to correct deficiencies that should increase program integrity and ensure program improvement.

Global Positioning Satellite "GPS"

We determined the current state contract for GPS services has no provisions to motivate the vendor to improve service. In fact, the vendor's objectives often conflict with those of the agency.

Vendor performance should be measured and must meet program expectations. To ensure a desirable level of performance, DC should consider performance-based contracting, a concept that ties performance to compensation. The vendor stands to gain financially in many situations when a minimum level of service is delivered. To ensure the performance of an expected level of service, reasonable penalties for non-performance should be designed and implemented.

Timely paging services, equipment that functions as intended, and adequate replacement inventories are essential pieces of the GPS monitoring process. If delayed pages or a lack of replacement equipment result in denial of service, the vendor should not be entitled to full payment for monitoring fees.

We recommended that program staff fully explore the potential for including performance incentives to improve performance and reduce costs to the state.

Management concurred with our recommendation and will explore the possibility of including performance incentives in the contract to improve vendor performance and enhance cost savings to the state.

National Claims Review, Inc. (NCRI)

The review of the contract with National Claims Review, Inc. by the Contract Systems Analysis Section resulted in $266,315 being identified as money owed the Department for overpayments to doctors and/or hospitals. The Department is actively pursuing the recovery of these overcharges with the majority of the money expected to be recouped during Fiscal Year 2002-03.

The review of this contract revealed the Department had also made several double payments to the contractor. When these overpayments were brought to the attention of NCRI a refund check for $4,050.00 was returned to the Department.

Internal Audit Section

The Bureau conducts financial, compliance, electronic data processing, and performance audits per Section 20.055 Florida Statutes. These audits are conducted in accordance with the current Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing published by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

The Bureau employs nine professional auditors with oversight from the Bureau Chief who functions as the Director of Auditing. Staff includes two Certified Public Accountants, two Certified Internal Auditors, a Certified Inspector General and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Summary of Audits Completed

During FY 2001-2002, the Financial and Compliance Section completed 19 audits, 6 reviews and assisted with financial reviews conducted by the Bureau of State Investigations. The audit reports issued during FY 2001-2002 are summarized in the chart below:

Contract Systems Analysis Section

This Section was established in July of 2001 by the Secretary to meet the demand of increased privatization of functions in the Department of Corrections. Since this unit was previously the Operational Review Section, the first few months of FY 2001-2002 were spent designing and initiating the new contract monitoring function. During this same period of time, this unit developed a transition training package for the Operational Review Program and trained the field staff in how to operate/manage the review system.

This section is responsible for the systematic reviews of the Department's contracting process, including the evaluation of both the contractor and the contract manager. Individual contractors will be evaluated to determine if they are providing the deliverables identified in the contract and correcting problems identified by the contract manager.

Assessing the effectiveness of contract managers will focus on how well they are doing their jobs, including an evaluation of the quality of the systems in place to monitor the contracts. The reason the evaluation of the Department's contract managers is so important is that these are the people who will make the contract work and ensure all parties to the contract benefit equally.

Summary of Contract Assessments Completed

During FY 2001-2002, the Contract Systems Analysis Section completed 12 assessments of different types of contracts. Much of the effort by the Contract Analysis group was devoted to the food service contract with Aramark and various health services contracts. The following table lists the reports issued by this section for FY 2001-2002:

American Correctional Association Accreditation Section

The Florida Department of Corrections is an active participant in the American Correctional Association (ACA), a nationally recognized organization which sets standards for operation of correctional facilities. The ACA accreditation program offers an opportunity for the Florida Department of Corrections to evaluate its operations against ACA's national standards, to remedy deficiencies and enhance the quality of correctional programs and services.

Within the Florida Department of Corrections, ACA accreditation activities are coordinated by the Bureau of Internal Audit's ACA coordinator. As of June 30, 2002, all of the agency's major institutions, work release centers and community corrections offices were fully accredited. The Florida Department of Corrections adopted the newly developed Performance Based Health Care standards as the vehicle to accredit health care in its major institutions.