Norfolk County Deputy Sheriffs Were Not Compensated for Delivering Attestation Copies of Documents.

Deputy sheriffs were not compensated by the CPD for delivering 10,678 attestation copies of legal documents, resulting in these deputies not receiving $15,483 in compensation.

Overview

CPD did not pay the commissions due Norfolk County Deputy Sheriffs for delivering attestation copies⁵ of legal documents during our audit period. Under Section 8(3) of Chapter 262 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the fee for delivery of attestation copies is $5.00. The Deputy Sheriffs’ commission percentage for the delivery is 29% ($1.45), which should have been automatically calculated by CivilServe. During our testing, we determined that Deputy Sheriffs did not receive any commissions for these deliveries during the audit period. We brought this to the attention of CPD management, who reviewed their records and determined that during the audit period, there were 10,678 deliveries of attestation copies and $15,483 of uncompensated fees.

Authoritative Guidance

The director of CPD gave us a detailed list of the commission percentages programmed into CivilServe and paid by the division for the following services:

Fee Description/Charges	Compensation Percentage
Basic Service	29%
Attestation—one copy	29%
Attestation—two copies	29%
Postage and handling	45%
Conveyance	29%
Travel	29%
Diligent search	45%
Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS)* basic service	29%
CPCS postage	45%
CPCS copies	29%

*    This agency provides legal representation for people who otherwise cannot afford it.

Reasons for Issue

CPD did not have a process or internal controls in place to ensure that all commissions generated by CivilServe were properly calculated and paid to Deputy Sheriffs for the delivery of attestation copies.

According to an email to OSA from the director of CPD,

After several discussions concerning the commission percentages paid to the serving deputies we discovered there to be a glitch in the CivilServe software that did not pay the 29% for Attestation—1 Copy to the deputy for all services with this charge. The amount not paid was 29% of $5.00 resulting in a deficit of $1.45 per service to each deputy being paid.

While investigating this issue, CPD management contacted the division’s CivilServe vendor, which had been aware of the issue since June 2019 but had not notified the division’s management or its information technology (IT) contractor (see Other Matters).

Recommendations

1. CPD should develop a process to ensure the accuracy of commissions paid to Deputy Sheriffs for delivering attestation copies.
2. CPD should determine how many deliveries of attestation copies have been invoiced and then pay the commissions due the Deputy Sheriffs.

Auditee’s Response

1. Concur. The CPD worked collaboratively on this issue with its CivilServe vendor. The software error that caused the non-payment of the 29% commission for Attestation—1 Copies to the deputies was rectified. All outstanding commissions due to deputies have been paid by CPD. The CPD will develop a process to reconcile total attestations to commissions paid to deputies to ensure the accuracy of commissions paid to Deputy Sheriffs for delivering all attestation copies. The process will include the Director of the Civil Process designating an individual or individuals to make updates to the commission rate schedule in CivilServe. The Director of Civil Process will approve all commission changes in the CivilServe system before any changes to the Deputy's commission schedule [become] effective.
2. Concur. Commissions are paid to Deputies once the CPD customer invoice has been paid. CPD will work with its CivilServe vendor to provide more transparency into the type of commissions being paid to Deputies. Specifically, a report will be developed that will provide an itemized accounting of the individual types of commissions paid to deputies. This will provide for more granular reporting and auditable reporting.

Auditor’s Reply

Based on its response, NSO is taking measures to address our concerns on this matter.

5.    An attestation copy is a signed copy of a document verifying that is a true copy of an original document.

Date published:	February 5, 2020