AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
June 16, 2015
Audit of the Office of the City Clerk Vital Records
Report Issued April 7, 2015
Background
The Office of the City Clerk (OCC) is responsible for maintaining the official records of the City of San Antonio, which, as of October 1, 2012, includes the safeguarding, maintenance and issuance of registered birth and death records within Bexar County.
Customers may apply for official copies of birth and death certificates at the Vital Records Division office or by accessing the Division's website. Additionally, the Division established a formal agreement with the San Antonio Public Library to issue birth certificates for local birth records filed since 2005. These services are provided at the following four branches:
· Las Palmas Branch Library
· Great Northwest Branch Library
· Mission Branch Library
· Thousand Oaks Branch Library.
Per internal Division reports, FY 2014 and YTD 2015 revenues were approximately $1.7 million and $1 million, respectively.
Audit Objective
Are vital records data (birth and death records) adequately protected and issued in accordance with City and State regulations?
Audit Scope and Methodology
The scope of this audit covered the registration, safeguarding, and issuance of certificates for birth and death records from October 2013 to November 2014.
We interviewed staff, reviewed policies and procedures including relevant Texas statutes and codes, City administrative directives and the Local Registrar Handbook. We also observed processes at the Vital Records Division office and participating libraries in order to understand and test controls for registering, maintaining, and issuing certificates for birth and death records.
Audit Conclusions
Yes, the Office of the City Clerk is in compliance with pertinent city and state regulations. The staff is effectively managing the Vital Records process and is following standard policies and procedures. Specifically, they have implemented controls to ensure compliance in the following areas:
· Birth and death records are filed correctly and completely by the Local Registrar
· Filed records are adequately protected
· Birth and death certificates are issued only to eligible applicants
· Associating revenue and bank note paper are adequately safeguarded
However, we did note that a control has not been implemented to identify birth records for which 10 certificates have been issued for the same person. Per state regulations, Vital Records management should report these instances to the State and deny any future requests for additional certificates. As such, we have recommended that the City Clerk implement controls to identify these birth records, prevent staff from issuing certificates for those records, and ensure that such records are reported to the State in a timely manner. Additionally, the City Clerk should ensure that these records identified during this audit are appropriately flagged and reported to the State.
The City Clerk concurred with our recommendation and developed a positive corrective action plan.