Report 2009-101 Recommendation 8 Responses

Report 2009-101: Department of Social Services: For the CalWORKs and Food Stamp Programs, It Lacks Assessments of Cost-Effectiveness and Misses Opportunities to Improve Counties' Antifraud Efforts (Release Date: November 2009)

Recommendation #8 To: Social Services, Department of

This recommendation has been superseded by a recommendation from a subsequent report. See 2015-503 #11.

To ensure that counties are consistently following up on all match lists, Social Services should remind counties of their responsibility under state regulations to follow up diligently on all match lists. Further, it should work with counties to determine why poor follow-up exists and address those reasons.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From August 2015

Draft All County Letter is in progress.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: See 2015-503 #11 for the most current assessment


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2014

CDSS has reviewed its previous response and finds this recommendation fully implemented. The Department has established protocols for the completion of all IEVS compliance reviews. The focus of this review is the timely processing of the matches. See attached County Match Documentation spreadsheet (Attachment C). If, through the compliance review, it is discovered that the county is not following up timely on a match report, the finding(s) is/are documented and the county must submit a Corrective Action Plan (CAP). CDSS staff monitor the completion of the CAP.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

The attachment that Social Services references is a blank template that it claims it uses. Social Services did not provide further documentation to support its claim.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2013

Partially Implemented/Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2018. Due to the complexity of this issue, CDSS has created a workgroup consisting of state and county fraud and eligibility staff to discuss the challenges to meeting the IEVS processing requirements. CDSS is also consulting with Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to ensure the correct interpretation of the rules. Once CDSS receives clarification from FNS and has a better understanding of the county issues, the Department will issue written instructions to the counties. Due to limited resources and other workload priorities, the resolution to this recommendation has been delayed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2012

Assembly Bill 6 (Chapter 501, Statutes 2011) changed the rules for CalWORKs and CalFresh clients from quarterly to semi-annual reporting as of 2013. This new rule has required the CDSS to assess the impact of these reporting changes on the requirements and timeframes associated with counties' review of IEVS matches. Once that analysis is completed, the CDSS anticipates releasing applicable instructions, subject to the analysis described in the response to Recommendation No. 2.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented


All Recommendations in 2009-101

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.