Report 2007-102.1 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2007-102.1: California State University: It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight and Establish Stricter Policies for Compensating Current and Former Employees (Release Date: November 2007)

Recommendation #1 To: University, California State

To provide effective oversight of its systemwide compensation policies, the university should create a centralized information system structure to catalog university compensation by individual, payment type, and funding source. The university should then use this information to monitor campuses' implementation of systemwide policies and measure the impact of these policies on university finances.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2014

In July 2011, the California State University (CSU) implemented the Common Financial System (CFS). The purpose of this consolidation was to get all campuses (except San Diego) on a single centralized application instance and in doing so one system is used to compute an individual's fund source. Also in July 2011, the Finance Data Warehouse was implemented allowing for a centrally-managed, robust enterprise financial reporting environment. The CSU is also in the development phase of building the Common Human Resources System (CHRS). The goal of CHRS is to consolidate all current individual campus human resources database instances into a single centrally managed Common Management System (CMS) human resource database with separate business units for each campus. The consolidated CHRS environment will provide improved and expanded human resource services and enable the application of standard business processes and standardization of data across the CSU. Furthermore, a Human Resource Data Warehouse is being developed which will allow for system wide reporting which will include the ability to obtain information on individual pay by pay type. Implementation is in its initial phase and the project scope and timeline is being updated.

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

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2013

In July 2011, The California State University (CSU) implemented the Common Financial System (CFS). The purpose of this consolidation was to get all campuses (except San Diego) on a single centralized application instance and in doing so one system is used to compute an individual's fund source. Also in July 2011, the Finance Data Warehouse was implemented allowing for a centrally-managed, robust enterprise financial reporting environment. The CSU is also in the development phase of building the Common Human Resources System (CHRS). The goal of CHRS is to consolidate all current individual campus human resource database instances into a single centrally managed Common Management System (CMS) human resource database with separate business units for each campus. The consolidated CHRS environment will provide improved and expanded human resource services and enable the application of standard business processes and standardization of data across the CSU. Furthermore, a Human Resource Data Warehouse is being developed which will allow for systemwide reporting which will include the ability to obtain information on individual pay by pay type. The project will be rolled out in four waves with Wave I being implemented July 2014 with Wave 4 being implemented July 2015.

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

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2010

As explained in past responses, after management conferred with the CSU Board of Trustees in January 2008, the CSU opted not to create a new centralized data system that would require more than 100 additional support staff. Instead, CSU required campus presidents to seek approval of initial compensation offers to new vice presidents and approval of changes in compensation for existing vice presidents. Reports have been made to the CSU Board of Trustees since November 2008, September 2009, September 2010, and September 2011. In addition the CSU created and delivered a training program to 939 CSU personnel (both campuses and Chancellor's Office) involved in keying salary and payroll data. This training has also been converted to an online e learning module and new employees involved in data entry relating to payroll and salary are required to take this training.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement

All Recommendations in 2007-102.1

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.