Overview
Our review of OCA’s website on June 24, 2022 showed that OCA had not posted Advisory Council meeting minutes since October 22, 2018, even though OCA continued to post the council’s annual fiscal year meeting agendas. If OCA does not post its annual Advisory Council meeting minutes, then the public and government stakeholders may not be informed of the current status of OCA activities.
Authoritative Guidance
Section 2(d) of Chapter 18C of the General Laws states, “[OCA] shall advise the public and those at the highest levels of state government about how the commonwealth may improve its services to and for children and their families.”
OCA’s June 2021 internal control plan states,
The OCA has an Annual Meeting of its Advisory Council in the fall. This meeting is generally used to update the Council on projects of the OCA and to answer questions that the Council may have about the work of the OCA. The Annual Meeting is open to the public. The OCA also posts all meeting minutes and reports on its website and has [an X, formerly known as Twitter] account for posting newsworthy events relating to the work of the OCA.
Reasons for Condition
We asked OCA why the agency stopped releasing the Advisory Council meeting minutes after October 22, 2018. In an email on June 28, 2022, OCA’s director stated,
These minutes were never approved by the Advisory Committee at its 2019 meeting because the vote was forgotten to be taken. . . . There is pending legislation to eliminate OCA’s Advisory Committee. If that doesn’t pass we will try to correct this error at the next meeting this fall.
OCA also told us that it did not take votes to approve the fiscal year 2020 and 2021 Advisory Council meeting minutes for the same reason.
Recommendation
OCA should publish annual Advisory Council meeting minutes.
Auditee’s Response
The OCA acknowledges and appreciates this finding. The OCA agrees that such meeting minutes should have been posted and not posting them was in error. The Advisory Council meets annually and the minutes of the meeting are created after the completion of the meeting. The only opportunity for the Advisory Council to vote on those minutes is a full year later at the next Advisory Council meeting. The OCA has not previously posted minutes that have not been voted upon by the Advisory Council in between meetings for the very fact that they have not been voted upon. The OCA also acknowledges that it is hard for the Advisory Council to accurately evaluate meeting minutes a full year after the meeting is held. However, the OCA agrees that the best and most transparent course of action is to post the meeting minutes promptly after the meeting, noting that they are draft and have not yet been approved. We will adopt this practice moving forward. In the meantime, the OCA has posted all available Advisory Council minutes on our website.
Auditor’s Reply
Based on its response, OCA is taking measures to address our concerns in this area.
| Date published: | October 7, 2024 |
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