Report 2014-110 Recommendations

When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below, is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor's assessment of auditee's response based on our review of the supporting documentation.

Recommendations in Report 2014-110: California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery: The Beverage Container Recycling Program Continues to Face Deficits and Requires Changes to Become Financially Sustainable (Release Date: November 2014)

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Recommendations to Legislature
Number Recommendation Status
1

To better ensure the Beverage Container Recycling Program (beverage program) is financially sustainable, the Legislature should consider enacting statutory changes that increase revenue, reduce costs, or a combination of both. Our report lists some specific proposals for the Legislature's consideration in Table 3, which begins on page 19 of our report.

 No Action Taken
Recommendations to Resources Recycling and Recovery, Department of
Number Recommendation Status
2

To ensure it can demonstrate that its fraud prevention efforts are maximizing financial recoveries for the beverage program, CalRecycle should both modify and annually update its fraud management plan to include the following:
- By December 31, 2014, formally establish a systematic process for analyzing, monitoring, and responding to the risk of fraudulent recycling of out-of-state beverage containers.
- Develop fraud estimates—by type of fraudulent activity—that quantify the potential financial losses to the beverage program and the methodology CalRecycle used to develop these estimates.
- Identify the amount of actual fraud in the prior year by type of fraudulent activity, such as the financial losses resulting from the redemption of out-of-state beverage containers or the falsification of reports used to substantiate program payments.
- Identify the amount actually recovered for the beverage program in the form of cash for restitution and penalties resulting from fraud.

Pending
3

To allow for public input and to prevent any legal challenges claiming that its policies and procedures regarding prepayment holds constitute unenforceable underground regulations, CalRecycle should adopt these policies and procedures as regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act.

Pending
4

To ensure that all appropriate redemption payments are identified and made to the beverage program, CalRecycle should do the following:
- Contract with the California Board of Equalization (Equalization) to determine the feasibility and cost of transferring its revenue collections duties and audit reviews to Equalization.
- Should CalRecycle find that it is feasible and cost effective, it should pursue legislative changes that enable Equalization to collect revenues for the beverage program at the point-of-sale and remit the money to the beverage program.

Fully Implemented
5

To ensure it effectively uses resources, CalRecycle should renegotiate its agreement with the California Department of Justice (Justice) to pay based on the cases CalRecycle refers, limiting costs to investigations over a predefined period of time. CalRecycle could agree to increase the budget for a particular investigation if Justice demonstrates that it has developed promising leads.

 Resolved
6

To ensure that CalRecycle has consistent evidence of the results of completed prosecutions and the amounts ordered in restitution, it should develop a status report to be issued quarterly by the Attorney General's Office (attorney general) that summarizes, among other things, the status of pending cases, recently closed cases, and amounts of restitution that are due to the beverage program as a result of the attorney general's prosecutions.

 Fully Implemented


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