North Carolina Department of Justice Audit Checklist

1. What is the purpose of the audit?
An audit serves as an independent, objective examination of a company’s financial statements, accounting records, and internal controls, offering recommendations to strengthen these systems and enhance financial reporting.

Audits involve an in-depth inspection of all relevant documents, records, and vouchers that pertain to a business to ensure they align with its book of accounts or financial statements. This helps prevent misrepresentation or fraud by assuring all transactions are recorded accurately; additionally it establishes a paper trail – essential for good corporate governance – while simultaneously verifying compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

2. What is the scope of the audit?
A scope of an audit refers to the range of activities and records that will be subject to inspection by an auditor team, typically determined based on subject knowledge, risk evaluation, and an assessment of internal controls (OAG Audit 4020 Planning an Audit: The Audition Logic Matrix).

Follow-up audit work should include reviewing any new risks that have emerged since the original audit, as well as whether any recommendations from Public Accounts Committee or other parliamentary committees have been implemented.

An audit should cover any lines of inquiry being considered by its audit team, so proper scoping increases effectiveness of an audit.

3. What is the timeframe for the audit?
Audits typically take four months after fiscal year-end (with housing authorities receiving nine months). Our aim is to complete audits on time; should any assistance be required from us during an audit, our Inspector General is on call and available.

CJIS collaborates closely with CJA Agency Coordinators and non-criminal justice agencies authorized to receive criminal history information, providing assistance in screening vendors and contractors who have access to unencrypted criminal justice data without supervision. Furthermore, this unit manages the entry of data into FBI NICS files as well as NCIC databases used by law enforcement for further processing and use.

4. What is the cost of the audit?
Cost of audits depend on actual expenses incurred by the Auditor’s office in performing it, though auditors may contract on a cost-reimbursable basis with Federal audit agencies or other governmental bodies for performance of audits under these agreements.

Internal Sharing and Disclosure
The Department shares criminal history record information (CHRI) amongst its components for official criminal justice as well as noncriminal justice purposes, while sharing certain authorized noncriminal justice uses (e.g. hazmat-endorsed commercial driver’s license or securities industries).

Criminal Justice Information Systems Unit (CJIS) is responsible for screening and auditing CJA Agency Coordinators as well as non-criminal justice authorized recipients who access CJIS services. Furthermore, they serve as the main point of contact when system issues or concerns arise.

5. What is the outcome of the audit?
Justice did not clearly communicate its case outcome reporting expectations to participants of RADS. A criminalist manager suggested that including this requirement in its CHOP trainings may help increase outcome reporting rates.

Justice did not enter into Memoranda of Understandings with 11 out of 23 RADS counties and could not provide evidence that other efforts had been taken to notify these counties that case outcome information must be reported in CHOP. As such, many have failed to report case outcome information related to their hits under RADS.

We found that some case outcome information in CHOP is outdated. Justice does not have a system in place for reminding RADS participants to update this information in CHOP; this may compromise its ability to report accurate statistics to legislators.