Report 2012-110 Recommendations

To the extent that it continues to expend money from the antiterrorism fund through contracts, Cal EMA should properly monitor its contracts to ensure compliance with their terms.

To the extent that it continues to expend money from the antiterrorism funds through contracts, Cal EMA should ensure that the expenses contractors claim comply with the contracts' terms, including the allowability of the expenses. For example, it should obtain adequate support for invoices contractors submit before issuing payment to ensure that the contractor has performed the work as expected and that the amount claimed is sufficiently supported.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Cal EMA should monitor the administrative expenses it charges to the antiterrorism fund and work with Finance to ensure that these expenses, coupled with additional administrative costs Finance charges, do not exceed 5 percent of the money from the antiterrorism fund appropriated to it during each fiscal year.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Cal EMA should ensure that it only allows grantees to claim expenses for activities directly related to fighting terrorism and not for ancillary services.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Cal EMA should maintain documentation to support its charges to the antiterrorism fund. For example, it should ensure that employees submit signed time reports to support the time they spend on antiterrorism-related activities.

To ensure that it properly administers its contract services paid from the antiterrorism fund, Food and Agriculture should verify that it has an executed contract in place before obtaining services under the contract and should monitor its contractors for compliance with provisions of the contracts and with state contracting laws.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Food and Agriculture should ensure that employees submit signed time reports to support the time they spend on antiterrorism-related activities.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Food and Agriculture should use all appropriate funding sources to pay for any expenses that benefit multiple programs in proportion to the benefits those programs actually receive.

To ensure that programs supported by special plates receive appropriate amounts of revenues due to them, Motor Vehicles should annually collect all fees for special plates that are no longer on a vehicle but are retained by the plate owner.

Motor Vehicles should ensure that the fees it lists in its application for special plates, as well as any other publications, are supported by the appropriate statutes.

Motor Vehicles should assess the extent to which it has charged fees for special plates that are not consistent with those prescribed in statutes and take appropriate action.

To ensure that it accurately recovers its administrative costs related to special plates, Motor Vehicles should continue to annually calculate the administrative costs for the plates when recovering these costs for the personalized plates through the State's budget process.

Motor Vehicles should periodically assess the cost and benefits of updating its automated systems to reflect current per-plate administrative costs. If Motor Vehicles determines that doing so is cost-effective, it should update its automated systems to reflect the up-to-date administrative costs for all these plates.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Resources should use all appropriate funding sources to pay for any expenses that benefit multiple programs in proportion to the benefits these programs actually receive. Further, it should ensure that its allocation of such expenses to different funds is equitable and supported.

To ensure that the governor and Legislature have sufficient and appropriate information with which to make decisions on the most effective use of environmental fund money, Resources should submit to the governor and Legislature the annual and triennial reports containing the information that state law requires.

To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Parks and Recreation should ensure that environmental fund money budgeted to its offices is supported by the proportion of the offices' activities that state law allows.

To demonstrate that all participants in the scholarship program are eligible to participate, Victim Compensation should establish and document the eligibility of the three participants for whom it currently lacks such documentation.