Texas State Auditor's Office - Summary of Report 23-035

A Performance Audit

An Audit Report on Select Prevention and Early Intervention Programs at the Department of Family and Protective Services

July 2023

Overview

Background

The Department of Family and Protective Services (Department) established processes and controls to help ensure that services were provided and funds spent according to applicable requirements for select prevention and early intervention programs. However, the Department did not consistently have documentation to show that it performed certain ongoing monitoring activities in compliance with its policies and procedures.

MEDIUM

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND QUARTERLY REPORTS

The Department did not have all documentation showing that it conducted technical assistance calls with providers and gave feedback to the providers about their quarterly reports as required by its policies.

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LOW

ANNUAL SPECIALIZED MONITORING PLAN PROCESSES

The Department appropriately identified higher-risk grants for additional monitoring in its specialized monitoring plan and conducted comprehensive and targeted monitoring in accordance with its policies.

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LOW

PAYMENTS TO PROVIDERS

The Department ensured that payments to providers were properly approved, had supporting documentation, were within applicable budgets, and were for allowable expenditures.

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MEDIUM

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Department appropriately limited access to certain systems it uses for its prevention and early intervention programs. However, it should strengthen certain user access controls.

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NOT RATED

Prior Audit Recommendations

The Department fully or substantially implemented corrective action for 4 (80 percent) of the 5 applicable recommendations reported in An Audit Report on the Information Management Protecting Adults and Children in Texas (IMPACT) System at the Department of Family and Protective Services (SAO Report No. 22-011, December 2021). Corrective action for the remaining recommendation was incomplete or ongoing.

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HIGH

CONFIDENTIAL REPORT

To minimize security risks, auditors communicated in a separate report to the Department details about controls over access to a shared drive used by the Department’s Prevention and Early Intervention Services Division. This finding was rated High because the issues could substantially affect the Department’s information security function.

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