Summary

This operational audit of the Department of Children and Family Services (Department) focused on contract monitoring and other selected administrative activities.  Our audit, covering the period July 2006 through February 2008, also included a follow‑up on the status of actions taken by the Department to address prior audit findings.  Our audit disclosed the following:

Risk Assessment

Finding No. 1:     Department contract oversight staff did not always score contracts correctly for the annual risk assessment required for contract monitoring.

Monitoring Exclusions

Finding No. 2:     Department contract oversight staff inappropriately excluded some providers from monitoring.

Monitoring Plans

Finding No. 3:     Department contract oversight staff did not always perform monitoring in accordance with the monitoring plan.

Community‑Based Care Lead Agency Monitoring

Finding No. 4:     The Department’s standard tool for monitoring community-based care lead agencies did not contain all applicable criteria necessary to determine subcontractor monitoring compliance.

Contracts With Former Employees

Finding No. 5:     The Department entered into contracts with former employees and the contracts violated the contract amount limits set by Section 112.3185(5), Florida Statutes.

FLAIR Access

Finding No. 6:     The Department did not always ensure that access to the Florida Accounting Information Resource Subsystem (FLAIR) was timely canceled for terminated employees.

Purchasing Card Cancellations

Finding No. 7:     The Department did not always ensure that purchasing cards were timely canceled for terminated employees.

Security Controls

Finding No. 8:     The Department should improve certain security control features related to the Automated Community Connection to Economic Self-Sufficiency Imaging System (ACCESS Imaging System) and the Voucher Imaging System.

Cellular Telephones

Finding No. 9:     Department staff did not always follow established policies and procedures regarding monitoring of cellular telephone usage.

MFMP Utilization

Finding No. 10: The Department did not fully utilize all the functional capabilities available in the MyFloridaMarketPlace (MFMP) system and continued to rely on workarounds and alternate systems in lieu of MFMP functionality.

Management of Attachments

Finding No. 11: The Department’s procedures for monitoring MFMP attachments for confidential information needed improvement.

User Role Assignments

Finding No. 12: The Department’s procedures for assigning MFMP user roles needed improvement.

Payroll Audits

Finding No. 13: The Department’s payroll audit procedures needed improvement.

Leave Balance Discrepancies

Finding No. 14: The Department did not always correctly calculate leave balances for employees who had separated from the Department.

The Secretary’s response is included at the end of this report as Exhibit B.