A Performance Audit
An Audit Report on Performance Measures at the State Office of Administrative Hearings
February 2022
Summary Analysis
The State Office of Administrative Hearings (Office) reported unreliable results to the Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST) for:
- Two key performance measures tested for fiscal year 2020
- One key performance measure tested for fiscal year 2020 and the first three quarters of fiscal year 2021.
The Office had weaknesses in its processes for adding new hearings and mediation cases to its Case Management System (CMS); as a result, it could not ensure that the performance measure data was reliable.
Specifically, the Office did not track the receipt of request forms for new hearings and mediation cases that were received manually from September 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. The Office enters all request forms, whether received manually or electronically, into the CMS. Without that information, auditors were unable to verify the completeness of the data in the CMS.
The State Office of Administrative Hearings (Office) did not report reliable results for the three key performance measures tested:
- Percentage of Participants Satisfied with Overall Process
- Percentage of Participants Satisfied with Overall Alternative Dispute Resolution Process
- The Average Number of Days from Close of Record to Issuance of Proposal for Decision or Final Order Issuance.
Percentage of Participants Satisfied with Overall Process and Percentage of Participants Satisfied with Overall Alternative Dispute Resolution Process. Factors prevented certification of these performance measures for fiscal year 2020 because the Case Management System (CMS) data was found to be unreliable.
Average Number of Days from Close of Record to Proposal for Decision or Final Order Issuance. Factors prevented certification of this performance measure for fiscal year 2020 and the first three quarters of fiscal year 2021 because the CMS data was found to be unreliable.
For the three key performance measures auditors selected for testing, the data from the CMS that was used to calculate those key performance measures from September 1, 2019, through May 31, 2021, was determined to be unreliable for the purposes of the audit. Weaknesses in the Office’s processes for adding new hearings and mediation cases to the CMS prevented auditors from being able to determine whether the data in the CMS was complete.
Specifically, the Office did not consistently track the receipt of Request to Docket Case forms (request forms) that state agencies submitted for new hearings and mediation cases.
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