Norfolk County District Attorney's Office

This is a state audit of certain financial and operational activities at the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office for July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the Massachusetts General Laws, we have conducted an audit of certain activities of the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office (NCDA) for the period July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011.”

The auditor checked whether the office had proper controls over money, spending, financial reports, assets, victim-witness work, forfeited assets, and whether it fixed an earlier audit issue.

“This audit, which covered the period July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011, was initiated to review the internal controls established by NCDA over certain aspects of its operations.”

Good controls help prevent public property from being lost, stolen, misused, or poorly tracked.

“Without an adequate ICP, NCDA cannot be sure that it is safeguarding its assets against loss, theft, and abuse.”

If you live in Norfolk County, this office serves residents in criminal and civil proceedings, so its ability to manage public resources matters to local taxpayers and court users.

“As of December 31, 2011, NCDA had 127 employees, including prosecutors/assistant DAs and administrative and program staff employees, who represent and serve approximately 670,850 citizens of the Commonwealth in criminal and civil proceedings, within a jurisdiction of 28 communities encompassing two cities and 26 towns in Norfolk County.”

The main problem was asset tracking: duplicate entries, missing cost and purchase-date information, and one law-enforcement vehicle left off the inventory list.

“Our audit found that NCDA was not fully compliant with OSC regulations regarding the accounting and reporting of non–Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) fixed asset furniture and equipment inventory.”

The auditor recommended that the office reconcile its asset lists, fill in missing information, add the vehicle, and revise its inventory threshold.

“NCDA should establish controls over its non-GAAP fixed asset inventory and maintain records in accordance with OSC guidelines and its own internal control policies and procedures as follows:”

Because so much asset information was missing, the office could not tell the full value of the assets it was responsible for.

“Because the cost and acquisition data is not available for these fixed asset items, the total value of the fixed asset inventory in the custody of NCDA cannot be ascertained.”

“Non-GAAP fixed assets” means things like vehicles, equipment, furniture, electronics, software, and computer parts that last more than a year but are below the state’s main financial-reporting threshold.

“Non-GAAP fixed assets are defined as singular assets and include such items as vehicles, equipment, furniture, electronic devices, computer software, and all electrical computer components with a useful life in excess of one year and an original cost between $1,000 and $49,999.”