Skip to main content

Audit of the Massachusetts District Attorney Association

An audit of the Massachusetts District Attorney Association's appropriation of funding intended to improve retention rates for certain assistant district attorneys. This audit examines the period of July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017.

Organization: Office of the State Auditor
Date published: April 24, 2018

Executive Summary

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Massachusetts District Attorney Association (MDAA) for the period July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017.

In this performance audit, we examined MDAA’s administration of funding that was appropriated to the association to improve the retention rate of Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) with three or more years of experience and to increase the minimum starting salaries of entry-level ADAs statewide. In addition, we sought to determine what impact, if any, this funding had on improving the retention rates of ADAs with at least three years of experience.

Below is a summary of our finding and our recommendations, with links to each page listed.

Finding 1
 

MDAA did not ensure that all the funding that was appropriated to improve the retention rates of certain ADAs was used for this purpose.

Recommendations
 
  1. If the state Legislature continues to provide funding for retaining ADAs with more than three years of experience, MDAA should develop policies and procedures to monitor these funds to ensure that they are only used for their intended purpose.
  2. MDAA should obtain reports from all of the District Attorney’s Offices on a mutually agreed-upon schedule to monitor how these funds are being used.

 A PDF copy of the audit of the Massachusetts District Attorney Association is available here.

List of Abbreviations

ADA

Assistant District Attorney

CFO

chief financial officer

HR/CMS

Human Resource Compensation Management System

ISA

Interdepartmental Service Agreement

MDAA

Massachusetts District Attorney Association

MMARS

Massachusetts Management Accounting and Reporting System

OSA

Office of the State Auditor

Table of Contents

Appendix

Contact

Phone

Main (617) 727-2075

Online

Auditor@sao.state.ma.us

Fax

(617) 727-3014

Address

Massachusetts State House
Room 230
Boston, MA 02133
Directions 

Help Us Improve Mass.gov with your feedback

Feedback