Summary

Report Number:	2010-010
Report Title:	Parole Commission - Restoration of Civil Rights - Operational Audit
Report Period:	07/2007 - 02/2009
Release Date:	09/03/2009

This operational audit of the Parole Commission (Commission) for the period July 2007 through February 2009 focused on Commission actions related to the restoration of civil rights (RCR) and actions taken to address prior audit findings.

Our audit disclosed the following:

Ex-Offender Initiated Requests for RCR

Finding No. 1:  Ex-offenders convicted of crimes in other states, in Federal courts, and who had not been placed in the custody of the Department of Corrections, must submit requests to initiate the RCR process.  Although there is a procedure in place for the receipt of applications from these ex-offenders, 28,428 of the 32,859 (86.5 percent) requests received since January 2006 had not been referred to the Commission's Office of Clemency Administration for review or investigation.

Eligibility Determination Procedures

Finding No. 2: The Commission had not established for RCR eligibility determinations a risk-based supervisory review process or quality control procedures.  A risk-based supervisory review process could target cases and eligibility criteria prone to error and assist in the more effective and judicious use of resources.  Quality control procedures would also increase assurance that eligibility determinations were made in accordance with Clemency Board Rules.

Overrides of Eligibility Determinations

Finding No. 3: While having the ability to override a parole examiner's determination appears to be a necessary role for supervisors, the Management Application of Clemency (MAC) database does not provide the parole examiner or management any notification of a supervisory change to an eligibility determination, nor does it flag the change in the database for later review.

Performance Measures

Finding No. 4: The Commission's performance measures did not provide standards and results for each level of review or investigation and for backlog reduction.

Accountability for Attractive or Sensitive Items

Finding No. 5:  To provide accountability and data security, the Commission�s information technology staff maintained a listing of property items, the costs of which did not meet the thresholds for capitalized property but which were considered attractive or sensitive.  However, the Commission did not maintain documentation of the physical inventory of these property items as well as any efforts to locate any unaccounted for property.

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The Management's response to the audit findings is included in the audit report as Exhibit A.