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Audit of the Human Resources Division Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

An overview of the purpose and process of auditing the Human Resources Division.

Table of Contents

Overview

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 certain activities of the Human Resources Division (HRD) for the period July 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017. When reviewing HRD’s documentation of when executive branch agencies submitted their affirmative action and diversity plans, we extended our examination period through July 2018.

We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer, the conclusion we reached regarding each objective, and where each objective is discussed in the audit findings.

Objective

Conclusion

  1. Did HRD ensure that executive branch agencies’ affirmative action and diversity plans complied with the reporting requirements of Executive Order (EO) 526?

No; see Findings 1 and 2

  1. Did HRD impose remedial courses of action on executive branch agencies that did not complete affirmative action and diversity plans in accordance with EO 526?

No; see Finding 1

 

To achieve our objectives, we gained an understanding of the internal controls we deemed significant to our audit objectives through inquiries and observations. We evaluated the design of controls over HRD management’s review and approval of affirmative action and diversity plans.

In addition, we performed the following procedures to obtain sufficient, appropriate audit evidence to address the audit objectives.

  • We inspected HRD’s report-tracking records that listed all of the most recent affirmative action and diversity plans that were due from executive branch agencies by September 15, 2017, as well as the plans that were actually submitted, and approved by HRD, by May 25, 2018. Although there are 67 different executive branch agencies that are expected to file these plans, HRD told us it had not required 2 of them to submit affirmative action plans because they had too few employees for these plans to be effective.
  • We reviewed the 53 affirmative action plans submitted on or before May 25, 2018 by executive branch agencies to ensure that they were complete (i.e., that they contained all the information required by the “Guidelines for Implementing Executive Order 526”).
  • We reviewed the 52 diversity plans that were submitted on or before May 25, 2018 by executive branch agencies to ensure that they were complete (i.e., that they contained all the information required by the “Guidelines for Implementing Executive Order 526”).
  • For the 18 executive branch agencies that did not submit both required plans, and/or that submitted plans that were not approved by HRD on or before May 25, 2018, we reviewed agency email correspondence with HRD and asked HRD management what remedial courses of action it had taken with noncompliant agencies, if any.
  • We judgmentally selected 20 of the 53 affirmative action plans, and 20 of the 52 diversity plans, that were submitted on or before May 25, 2018 by executive branch agencies to ensure that they were approved by HRD.
  • We reviewed the two most recent annual affirmative action plan and diversity plan progress reports that were submitted by executive branch agencies (due August 30, 2016 and August 30, 2017) to determine to what extent they had reported that the goals that they had established in their plans had been met. For 2016, 33 agencies submitted affirmative action plan progress reports and 35 submitted diversity plan progress reports. For 2017, 25 agencies submitted affirmative action plan progress reports and 31 submitted diversity plan progress reports.

We used Microsoft Excel tracking log spreadsheets provided by HRD to identify the agencies that submitted affirmative action and diversity plans and the dates on which HRD approved the plans. We analyzed the spreadsheets by testing for hidden data, columns, worksheets, formulas, or active filters. We traced a judgmental sample of 10 affirmative action plans and 10 diversity plans to data in the spreadsheets. Additionally, we obtained a list of all executive branch agencies from mass.gov and compared it to the spreadsheets to determine whether each spreadsheet properly listed each agency that was required to complete each plan. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report.

Date published: February 14, 2019

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