Summary

Chapter 2000-237, Laws of Florida, established an Article V Financial Accountability and Efficiency Workgroup to make recommendations for implementation of revisions to Article V of the State Constitution and required the Florida Association of Court Clerks (FACC) to collect information on court-related services, revenues, and costs of the Clerks of the Circuit Courts. The Workgroup Chair requested that we conduct sample audits of the data collected by the Clerks. Because reliable information as to the costs of operating the State’s courts system was not readily available, the FACC utilized a survey of the Clerks to gather the data. Our review of the data gathered, compiled and reported by the Florida Association of Court Clerks (FACC) disclosed that:

• Inconsistencies in the revenue and expenditure information provided by the Clerks limits the reliability that can by placed on the survey data.

• The Clerks’ reported a statewide "operational deficit" of $227.2 million. While this information was not used in establishing a proposed fee structure, a more meaningful "deficit" would consider fees that are collected by the Clerks, remitted to the boards of county commissioners, and not restricted to a particular purpose.

• Procedures used to determine indirect costs could be improved to provide more consistent and accurate estimates of such costs, reported at $68 million, or 22.4 percent of total costs.

• Survey data submitted by the Clerks for revenues was often incomplete or appeared inconsistent from Clerk to Clerk. Although this did not impact the recommended fee schedule, it did affect the reported "operational deficit.
   

• The process for arriving at a recommended fee schedule could be improved to assure a consistent basis for determining proposed fee adjustments.

We believe that further analysis is necessary to obtain reliable estimates of revenues and expenditures as a basis for a revised fee structure.

Documentation demonstrating the application of the proposed fee schedule revealed inaccuracies in the reported amounts. Also, estimated indigent rates varied significantly from county to county without explanation.

Our review of the court-related financial information provided to the State by the Clerks disclosed the following:

• The Clerks’ annual financial audits do not disclose the funding levels for court operations. Their annual financial reports do provide such information, but they are untimely and are not subject to an auditor’s opinion.

The extent of the use of the State Comptroller’s Uniform Chart of Accounts for recording and reporting court-related transactions by the Clerks varies greatly.