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The Nantucket County Sheriff’s Department Did Not Properly Administer the Civil Process.

Without segregation of duties and management oversight, NCSD cannot ensure that civil process transactions are accurately processed, recorded, and reviewed.

Table of Contents

Overview

The Nantucket County Sheriff’s Department (NCSD) did not properly administer the civil process. Specifically, NCSD did not develop appropriate internal controls over civil processes, fill out its civil process spreadsheet completely, or record and collect all fees for civil process services provided.

a.  NCSD lacked segregation of duties, defined roles, and management oversight.

NCSD did not have defined segregation of duties for the civil process. Its procedures allowed one employee to perform the civil process from beginning to end, specifically recording information on the civil process jacket; filling in the civil process spreadsheet; and recording, collecting, and depositing the funds. In addition, there was no management oversight of the Civil Process Division, since there was no review of the civil process spreadsheet. Without segregation of duties and management oversight, NCSD cannot ensure that civil process transactions are accurately processed, recorded, and reviewed.

Authoritative Guidance

Section 10.04 of the Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth’s June 2015 Internal Control Guide states,

Management should divide or segregate key duties and responsibilities among different people to reduce the risk of error, misuse, or fraud. This includes separating the responsibilities for:

  • authorizing transactions,
  • processing and recording them,
  • reviewing the transactions, and
  • handling any related assets or process so that no one individual controls all key aspects of a transaction or event.

The Office of the State Auditor believes management oversight is necessary to ensure that NCSD’s Civil Process Division operates effectively.

Reason for Issue

NCSD lacked written policies and procedures for segregation of duties and management oversight of civil processes.

b.  NCSD’s civil process spreadsheet was not completely filled out.

NCSD did not ensure that all data fields were filled in on the civil process spreadsheet. Our data analysis showed that from the population of 924 civil processes, 68 were missing the fee amount, 3 were missing the type of service provided, 9 were missing the plaintiff’s name, and 2 were missing the defendant’s name and address.

In addition, during our tracing of the civil process spreadsheet to the hardcopy civil process jackets, we found that five of the civil processes we selected had fees that did not match their jackets and one had a sheriff identification number that did not match its jacket. During our tracing of civil process jackets to the civil process spreadsheet, we found that four jackets had fees that did not match the spreadsheet and two jackets were not on the spreadsheet.

As a result, NCSD may not be able to identify what fees have been collected for the services provided.

Authoritative Guidance

Section 04 of the “Office of the Sheriff, Nantucket County, Civil Process and Procedures” states,

Preparation of Services

  1. Upon receipt, a civil process jacket with an assigned sheriff number is started for filing and proof purposes. . . .
  2. The information is then transferred to the front of the jacket from the paperwork. ie: Defendant, Plaintiff, Attorney, Type of Service
  3. The jacket information is then logged into a registry book. Also, an excel program.

In addition, the Office of the State Auditor believes that it is important to record fees collected for accounting purposes.

Reason for Issue

The “Office of the Sheriff, Nantucket County, Civil Process and Procedures” does not define the specific information that needs to be transferred to the civil process spreadsheet from the civil process jacket. In addition, multiple staff members have access to the spreadsheet and can make modifications with no managerial review of the information on the spreadsheet.

c.  NCSD did not always record and collect fees for services provided.

For papers served by the NCSD Civil Process Division, staff members did not fill out the civil process jackets consistently and did not collect all fees. In addition, we could not confirm that the fees collected were deposited in NCSD’s bank account. Specifically, of the 60 civil processes we tested, 6 did not have the jackets filled out completely and did not have fees collected. In addition, 48 civil processes (totaling $2,277) had papers served and had fee collections documented on the jackets, but NCSD did not record which fees corresponded with which services. Without filling out the jackets consistently and documenting the payments, NCSD cannot identify all outstanding fees or reconcile its bank statements.

Authoritative Guidance

Section 06(2) of the “Office of the Sheriff, Nantucket County, Civil Process and Procedures” states,

Payment is required upon receipt of service. . . . However, if it is an attorney we deal with often, a bill is sent along with a copy of the completed service.

Also, Section 05 of the procedures states,

  1. When service has been completed . . . it is acknowledged by written confirmation of how the papers were served. . . .

B.  Included, also, the fee amount, a signature line, and the typed name of the server, title, department address.

In addition, during our site visit NCSD staff members described the department’s procedures to us. They stated that when someone requests a civil process service, the staff members prepare the civil process jacket and the civil process forms that are needed for serving the civil action and place the forms in the jacket. They stated that they enter the attorney’s and defendant’s name, address, and phone number on the jacket as well as details about the plaintiff. They also enter a description of the process that was served, the fee amount, and when it was paid, if applicable. They enter all of this information on the civil process spreadsheet and in the registry book. They log cash payments in a receipt book, along with check payments mailed by attorneys after a process is served. They enter all payments on the civil process spreadsheet and on the jacket as well as in the receipt book.

Reason for Issue

NCSD’s written civil process policies do not define in detail what information NCSD staff members are required to record on the civil process jacket and how they should document the fee collected, including the date of collection and payment method. In addition, NCSD does not have an accounting system or case management system that would accurately document the services provided and fees collected; all procedures are currently done manually. For the instances where fees were not collected, the sheriff told us he decided to waive the fee but did not document the rationale for the waiver.

Recommendations

  1. NCSD should define and segregate duties in its written policies for authorizing transactions, recording transactions on the civil process spreadsheet, and reconciling transactions for its funds.
  2. NCSD should implement closer supervision or more frequent reviews of civil process transactions.
  3. NCSD should update the “Office of the Sheriff, Nantucket County, Civil Process and Procedures” regarding what information from the civil process jacket should be recorded on the civil process spreadsheet.
  4. NCSD should restrict access to the civil process spreadsheet to specific users.
  5. NCSD should designate an employee who cannot make changes to the civil process spreadsheet to periodically review it for missing and inaccurate information.
  6. NCSD should update the "Office of the Sheriff, Nantucket County, Civil Processes and Procedures" to detail exactly what fields need to be filled out on the civil process jacket, as well as how and where to document the fees collected, including the payment method, payment amount, and collection date.
  7. NCSD should obtain an accounting system and a case management system to help record services provided and document fees collected.

Auditee’s Response

Per your recommendations regarding NCSD’s audit, we have installed Quicken for an improved accounting system to document fees collected, payment method, payment amount and collection date.

We will update our “Civil Process and Procedures” to detail exactly the fields that need to be filled out on the civil process jacket, as well as ALL of the documentation of fees collected.

Our office will continue to record the services in the registry book, to match up with the jackets.

The excel program was not set up or used by this office for accounting purposes. We have that in place to look up a service, for example if an attorney calls and requests information from one that took place 6 months ago. The spreadsheet is only used by 2 employees.

The Sheriff will be given bi-monthly reports of all Civil Process transactions that are taking place and have been completed. . . .

We have two employees that write up the services, collect the fees and do the returns of service. We will have a third employee be more involved in this part of the office, so we can improve on “segregation of duties.”

Auditor’s Reply

Based on the response above, it appears NCSD is making changes to address our concerns.

Date published: December 9, 2021

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