Audit of the Civil Service Commission (CSC)

This is a performance audit of the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission, covering January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2018.

“In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has performed an audit of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for the period January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2018.”

The audit looked at how the commission handled appeals, especially whether it had time standards and whether it met them.

“In this performance audit, we examined certain aspects of how CSC administered its appeal process in terms of establishing time standards for the completion of appeals and the extent to which it met established timelines.”

The commission decides appeals from certain public employees and job candidates, including disputes about discipline, layoffs, bypasses, exams, and classifications.

“We hear and decide appeals filed by certain state and municipal employees and candidates for positions covered by the civil service law, including: discipline, layoff, bypass, and examination appeals as well as classification appeals for all state employees.”

If you are a covered public employee or civil service job applicant, this agency may be where you appeal certain employment decisions.

“According to its website, CSC’s mission is to adjudicate appeals of public employees and job applicants covered by Chapter 31 of the General Laws.”

The auditor concluded that the commission had time standards for all appeal types and met those standards.

“Did CSC meet the time standards it had established for the processing of appeals?”

The report does not describe required fixes; the auditor discussed the report with agency management and included management’s comments.

“My audit staff discussed the contents of this report with management of the agency, whose comments are reflected in this report.”

The audit covered 594 appeals and used the commission’s case management data, which the auditor found reliable enough for testing.

“We determined that the information was sufficiently reliable for audit testing.”

“Case flow management time standards” means expected timeframes for a full case or parts of a case, from opening to closing.

“Case flow management time standards represent the expected time from the opening to the closing of a case (i.e., case life cycle) or the expected time for segments or portions of the case life cycle.”