Report 2012-301 Recommendation 10 Responses

Report 2012-301: Judicial Branch Procurement: Six Superior Courts Generally Complied With the Judicial Branch Contracting Law, but They Could Improve Some Policies and Practices (Release Date: March 2013)

Recommendation #10 To: Superior Court of California, County of Napa

To ensure that court executive management is aware of and approves large purchases, the Napa court's staff should restrict approvals to established dollar levels. Further, to demonstrate adherence to its approval policies, the court should implement its new procedure to record executive committee approvals in the procurement file.

60-Day Agency Response

The Court agrees with the recommendation and has already implemented a new process and corresponding form to document the approval of all large purchases by the Executive Committee. The new procedure was effective January 31, 2013 and will ensure that each large purchase has Executive Committee approval and that approval is properly documented. Each purchase order for $20,000 or more will have an associated "Executive Committee Authorization to Purchase" form. The signed original form will be kept in the contract file or the procurement file if there is no contract. The Accounting Division will also have a copy of the form attached to the Accounting copy of the Purchase Order. This will allow the Chief financial Officer to ensure that the appropriate approval documentation is present and notify executive management if that is not the case.

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

As we reported in 2012-301 and as the court describes in its response, subsequent to our audit fieldwork, the court developed a form for documenting executive committee approval of large purchases.

All Recommendations in 2012-301

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.