Audits in Progress
These summaries of the audits currently approved or under way link to
the audit "scope statement" approved by the Legislative Post
Audit Committee or (for audits conducted by the school audit team) by
the 2010 Commission. The scope statement outlines the questions the audit
will try to answer and the methods we would use to answer those questions.
(Files in PDF format are 15 KB or smaller).
Fiscal Notes:
Determining Whether the Process for Preparing Fiscal Estimates In Kansas
Could Be Improved
The Division of the Budget estimates that 750-800 fiscal notes are prepared
during a legislative session. About two-thirds of those have a specific
dollar impact tied to them. Legislators have expressed concerns about
the accuracy of fiscal notes in Kansas, and whether State agencies are
held accountable for the reliability of the estimates they provide to
the Budget Director. In addition, they want to know if there is more Kansas
could do to provide better estimates of the potential benefits for economic
development fiscal notes.
Scope statement
Children in Need of Care:
Reviewing Selected Issues Related to handling Their Cases
There is concern about the handling of Children-in-Need-of-Care cases.
Legislators want to know whether social workers and case managers are
qualified, and whether they are trained to work with the courts and district
attorneys' offices. They also want to know whether sufficient numbers
of social workers and case managers are employed to handle the workload.
Finally, they would like to know whether social workers in Kansas have
been unduly influenced by prosecutors, and if so, the extent of the problem,
and if so, what needs to be done to address it.
Scope
statement
K-12 Education:
School District Efficiency Audits
The 2005 Legislature passed House Bill 2247 which increased State funding
for school districts by more than $145 million for the 2005-06 school
year. To ensure greater accountability, the legislature established a
school district team within the Legislative Division of Post Audit to
conduct audits and monitor school district funding and other oversight
issues. Potential topics relate to how efficiently and effectively school
districts use their State funding. This audit would look at the efficiency
and effectiveness of many aspects of school districts' operations such
as management of its personnel and facilities. Also whether districts
follow best practices for financial management; and does the district
spend its State at-risk and bilingual funding on effective programs.
Scope
statement
State Universities:
Can State Universities Provide Post-Secondary Education More Efficiently
to Reduce Costs
The Board of Regents oversees the State higher education system, which
includes six State universities serving about 90,000 students. In the
past ten years, spending at the six universities (excluding the University
of Kansas Medical Center) has grown from about $910 million to nearly
$1.7 billion. That increase in spending is about 26% higher than the inflation
rate for higher education. During that same time the number of staff at
the institutions has grown by 16% from 11,383 to 13,245. Legislators want
to know if there are opportunities for State universities in Kansas to
reduce the cost of providing post-secondary education.
Scope
statement
K-12 Education:
Reviewing Issues at the Kansas State High School Activities Association
Recently, legislators have expressed concerns that the Kansas State High
School Association's governance structure, with both a Board of Directors
and an Executive Board, is cumbersome and makes the Association less responsive
to the needs of its member schools. Also, there are concerns that the
Association's policies for sharing the revenue generated by its sanctioned
events cause schools to lose money when they host such events. Last of
all, there are concerns that the Association's limits on the lengths of
seasons and its restrictions on student-athletes' contact with their coaches
hinder the athletic development of Kansas student-athletes.
Scope
statement
Vehicle Travel:
Determining Whether the State Is Becoming More Efficient In its Consumption
of Motor Fuel
Recently, legislators have expressed interest in knowing whether the
State has taken steps to reduce vehicle travel costs. In particular, they
want to know whether the State has been able to reduce miles driven and
gasoline costs, and whether the State is acquiring more fuel-efficient
vehicles when it replaces vehicles that have reached the end of their
useful lives. Also, they want to know the extent to which the State would
save money by buying used fleet vehicles rather than new cars.
Scope statement
Agency Data Centers:
Assessing the Potential Savings of Consolidation
According
to the most recent set of agency IT plans compiled by the Kansas Informatiion
Technology Office, executive branch agencies (excluding the Regents institutions)
spent more than $111 million on IT services in fiscal year 2007. One of
the major IT cost areas is the operation and maintenance of data servers.
According to the IT plans, agencies currently operate four large mainframe
systems and more than 2,100 smaller servers. Legislators are interested
in knowing whether there is potential for significant cost savings in
Kansas from consolidating data centers, and what potential up-front costs
would be need to be incurred.
Scope statement
State Agency Staffing:
Reviewing Management Positions Across Selected State Agencies
Legislators have expressed concerns that, in some cases, State salary
dollars may be going to create and maintain management positions when
the money might be better spent on frontline workers who deliver services
to the public. Accordingly, they want to know how agencies compare in
the percent of their total positions that are management, and whether
money could be saved by reducing the amount of management staff in agencies
that seem management heavy.
Scope
statement
State Inspection Functions:
Determining Whether There Are Ways To Combine, or Otherwise Restructure
Some Functions To Reduce Costs
A number of State agencies regulate certain professions or business enterprises
in Kansas. As part of those regulatory activities, many of those agencies
have staff whose job is to inspect businesses around the State. In 2003,
Legislative Post Audit looked at the possibility of combining food safety
inspection programs in Kansas and estimated that about $90,000 could be
saved by combining certain inspections. Recently, legislators have raised
questions about whether there are ways to combine some inspection functions
or better coordinate them to eliminate duplicate or unnecessary inspections
to achieve cost savings.
Scope
statement
Data Mining:
Reviewing State Data Systems for Inappropriate Payments
This audit would apply some of the same techniques used to identify improper
payments to ineligible clients in the Medicaid Program to some other entitlement
programs. Auditors will look to see if the State's current practices adequately
address the identified risk for abuse and non-compliance; and are there
instances of abuse and non-compliance actually occurring.
Scope
statement
State Agency Information Systems:
Reviewing Selected Security Controls in State Agencies
State agencies continue to become more dependent on their computer systems
and on the data those systems contain to make decisions and fulfill their
missions. Presently there is little oversight of State agencies' computer
operations to monitor whether technology risks are being addressed. This
audit would look at how well State agencies control network passwords
and keep operating systems up-to-date.
Scope statement
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