“The State Bar proposed a one‑time $250 special assessment fee for 2020 to fund IT projects and capital improvements planned over the next five years …,” says the report, issued by State Auditor Elaine M. Howle. “Although we agree with the necessity for a special assessment fee, we believe that State Bar could spread that fee over five years and postpone some projects.”
The fees should instead be spread out over the next five years rather than being assessed up-front, says the report. And rather than hiring 58 new staffers to handle the discipline caseload, as the State Bar requests, the Auditor's Office suggests hiring 19 for now and seeing if more people are needed in the future.
On IT spending, the State Bar won the auditor's support for funding just over half the number of projects it sought.
Overall, the Auditor’s Office recommended that the Legislature approve the State Bar’s request to fund six projects, and it recommended rejection for five. The recommendation was that lawmakers approve smaller IT assessments and spread them out over five years, rather than one large assessment due next year. The State Bar proposed an $88-per-member assessment this year for IT improvements; the audit instead recommends a $22-per-member fee this year; $11 in 2021; $14 in 2022; $6 in 2023; and $12 in 2024.
Here are the six IT-related projects that the Auditor’s Office backed, totaling $13,165,000:
-- Hardware upgrades (equipment such as computers and printers); $7,324,000
-- Oracle Fusion (upgrading finance and procurement software); $1,379,000
-- Licensee Information Management System (LIMS) (creating single database to manage licensees' records); $3,512,000
-- Network security assessment (completing risk assessment for IT networks every three years); $400,000
-- Application security assessment (completing risk assessment for IT applications every three years); $200,000
-- Disaster recovery services (creating an IT plan for disasters); $350,000
Here are the six IT-related projects that the Auditor’s Office advised the Legislature to reject, totaling $3,485,000:
-- Enterprise content and records management systems (creating a single, internal file management system); $1,400,000
-- Paperless State Bar projects (transferring paper documents into a digital format); $600,000
-- Migration of remaining AS400 applications (updating older systems that manage business processes); $633,000
-- Data warehouse/analytics (creating a single database for State Bar data); $540,000
-- Mobile applications (creating mobile applications for licensee use); $312,000
In its response to the Auditor's Office, which is included in the package submitted to legislators, the State Bar agrees with some findings and not others. The full report is available online for perusal or download.
