OAG lowers outstanding OPA recommendations from 11 to 9

The Office of the Attorney General resolved two outstanding audit recommendations this month in its effort to improve compliance with recommendations from the Office of the Public Auditor. The closure of these two recommendations brought the office’s number of outstanding recommendations, all of which were issued between April 23, 1997 and Aug. 6, 2003, down from 11 to nine. This reduced the office’s amount of outstanding recommendations by 18 percent.

To address the backlog, the OAG has been meeting with OPA to gather more information and to create a plan to address the recommendations in a timely and efficient manner. The two offices agreed that focus should first be on those recommendations that require the least investigation and can be handled the most expediently.

The first recommendation examined was issued on Nov. 5, 2002, and concerned long-distance telephone charges at the Department of Labor and Immigration. Attorney General Edward Buckingham had addressed this recommendation in December 2009 by declaring the issue moot, due to the federalization of immigration and the closure of the office at issue. However, due to the OAG’s failure to provide its opinion in writing to OPA, the issue had been classified as “resolved-delinquent.” The OAG submitted a written opinion to OPA in February 2012 and the status was changed to “closed.”

The second outstanding recommendation stemmed from an audit conducted in 1997 that revealed financial improprieties of a former Finance secretary. In 2001, the secretary had been sentenced to 33 months of federal prison and ordered to pay $56,461.98 in restitution. There was also discussion of bringing a civil case against the secretary to obtain the remainder of funds that had been misappropriated. OPA’s recommendation instructed the OAG to provide copies of the judgment to OPA if a case was brought and won. The OAG reviewed the benefits of bringing a civil case against the secretary, but found that, due to the secretary’s limited assets and the growing obligation of his restitution payment (due to interest), the Commonwealth would be unlikely to ever collect a judgment. For this reason, the OAG does not consider it to be a beneficial use of the Commonwealth’s resources to pursue this civil action. The OAG stated this in a letter addressed to OPA and OPA has closed this report insofar as it applies to the OAG.

The OAG is pleased with the progress that has been made since renewing its focus on bringing the office into compliance with OPA recommendations. However, this is a long-term project and some of the recommendations will require complex research and investigation that may take more time to resolve than others. (Office of the Attorney General)