Summary of Report 98-065

August 1998

Report Number 98-065

Overall Conclusion

The Texas Workforce Commission (Commission) has made progress in transferring service delivery responsibilities to the local workforce development boards over the last two years. At the time of our 1996 audit, none of the local boards were operational. As of July 1, 1998, the majority of eligible program funding is managed at the local level by 16 fully operational local workforce development boards.

The Commission is also taking steps to improve oversight and management of employment-related services. These actions are intended to correct weaknesses in contract administration, planning, budgeting, and accounting previously identified in our 1996 audit. With a dual role, the Commission is both a service provider and a monitor over local workforce development boards. In these roles, the Commission manages over $800 million in public funds to help citizens develop work skills and find jobs.

Key Facts and Findings

Since many of the Commission's initiatives are still in progress, we could not fully determine their outcome. The Commission's efforts show that management recognizes areas that need improvement and has initiated actions to correct the problems. However, until the proposed solutions are fully implemented, we are concerned that problems identified both internally and externally will continue.

Additional concerns were noted in the following areas:

• The Commission does not formally track and monitor the status of initiatives to improve operations which ensure that corrective actions are implemented timely and consistently.

• The Commission does not know if its current staffing level is appropriate to support the new workforce delivery system. Consequently, the Commission may not be taking advantage of opportunities to redefine jobs and realign staff.

• The Commission still needs to place a high priority on improving contract administration despite progress made over the last two years.

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