Report 2021-114 Recommendation 9 Responses

Report 2021-114: State Surplus Property: The State Should Use Its Available Property More Effectively to Help Alleviate the Affordable Housing Crisis (Release Date: March 2022)

Recommendation #9 To: General Services, Department of

To ensure that reporting to the SPI occurs as required, DGS should contact agencies that do not certify their SPI submissions by the deadline to determine the reasons for the delay and assist in correcting the deficiency. DGS should conduct this work annually, beginning with the reports due in December 2022.

1-Year Agency Response

DGS requested data from the departments for which their annual SPI verification submission was delinquent. These requests occurred on July 6th, August 5th, and one last time on September 8th. As of December 31st, 15 departments had not responded to the annual verification, 13 of which were District Agriculture Associations, the other two were CDT and Cal OES. Of the 13 entities, not all provided explanations for their failure to provide the annual verification. Several of the DAAs shared that they failed to report based on being busy during the summer fair season and staff shortages due to COVID. CDT let us know in early 2023 it was an oversight and was going to report on it early this year. Cal OES did not respond to our inquiries. The SPI team has sent the 2023 annual verification out on January 11th.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

DGS made several attempts to determine the reason for non-reporting by agencies, and identified rationales by certain agencies.

6-Month Agency Response

DGS requested data from departments for which their annual SPI verification submission was delinquent. These requests occurred on July 6th, and again on August 5th. As of August 5th, 19 departments had not responded to the annual verification,15 of which were District Agriculture Associations. Of the 19 entities, not all provided explanations for their failure to provide the verification. Of note, several of the DAAs indicated that their failure to provide the annual verification or explanation was due to the summer fair season and COVID quarantines. Of the remaining four entities, two were CDCR prison facilities, which indicated that their submissions were inadvertently overlooked and would be provided soon. CalOES is expected to submit their certification in August 2022, and DGS is working with CDT on timing for their submission.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The SPI team is working through the annual verification per Government Code 11011.15. Consistent with past practice, the SPI team sent a memo informing all state departments that the annual verification process was ready for viewing and access at the beginning of the calendar year, January 3, 2022. The SPI team sent a follow up email on March 15th reminding departments of the request to submit the data to DGS. Follow up emails are planned for the departments that have not submitted their SPI submissions by April 15th on May 2nd, June 1st, and June 15th, 2022. The team will request data after July 1st as to the reasons why they are late with their submittals. To the extent that departments provide reasons that are actionable on the part of DGS, DGS can address those issues as they arise.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

All Recommendations in 2021-114

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.