Report 2020-301 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2020-301: Judicial Branch Procurement: Courts Generally Met Procurement Requirements, but Some Need to Improve Their Payment Practices (Release Date: January 2021)

Recommendation #3 To: Superior Court of California, County of Orange

To ensure appropriate approval of all payments, by July 1, 2021, the court should revise its payment process to consistently require two levels of approval for all invoices above a certain dollar limit.

60-Day Agency Response

Effective on January 28, 2021, we modified our process for approving Alternate Defense invoices. Invoices greater than $10,000 are routed to the Administrative Analyst in Accounting Services for a primary approval. If the invoice is greater than $50,000 it is routed to the Accounting and Fiscal Services Director for a secondary approval.

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

As part of its 60-day response, the court provided us with documentation of the revised invoice approval process described in its response. The revised process requires secondary approval for high-value invoices for certain legal services, similar to the approval the court requires for high-value invoices for other goods and services. To the extent that it follows the revised process, the court will address the concern we raised in our report about its payment safeguards.

All Recommendations in 2020-301

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.