Report 95105 Summary - April 1996

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

:

A Review of Evaluations and Audits Conducted by Other Entities

The purpose of our audit was to determine the extent to which the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan) implemented recommendations included in its recent audits and evaluations conducted by other entities. Further, we determined whether there were any issues that had not been adequately addressed in the audits and evaluations or any recommendations that had not been adequately addressed by Metropolitan that merit further review. During our review of the issues addressed in the audits and evaluations and of Metropolitan's implementation of the recommendations they contained, nothing came to our attention that would merit further review at this time.

We reviewed six reports issued by either independent auditors or outside entities during the period of February 1992 through February 1996. Four of the six reports were reviews of Metropolitan's operations that were requested by either its board of directors or its management. The remaining two reports were annual reports prepared by Metropolitan's independent auditors. The six reports evaluated Metropolitan's operations in a variety of areas, including rates, human resources, information systems, organizational structure, policies and procedures, and project management.

From these reports, we identified 81 key recommendations that we determined had a direct effect on compliance with laws and regulations, equitable determination of rates, or operating efficiency. The results of our review indicate that Metropolitan has fully implemented 62 of the recommendations (76 percent), partially implemented 15 of the recommendations (19 percent), and not implemented 4 of the recommendations (5 percent).