Records Management Follow-up

A hand reaches to full a binder of records off of a shelf.

While the Office of the Clerk and Recorder implemented six recommendations made in the “Records Management” audit report, 11 others have yet to be fully implemented or acted upon.

The office established policies and procedures for contract monitoring and to clarify contract oversight. The office documented a measurable and action-oriented strategic plan for records management, and the office regularly monitors progress toward meeting goals and objectives specified in the plan. Additionally, the office developed policies and procedures to notify anyone who records a document that their document will be posted online and publicly accessible.

However, the office did not take action to address other potential risks we identified in our original audit. Specifically:

  • The office did not document criteria to guide its evaluation of historical documents.
  • The office did not update the retention schedule to align with existing practices or to ensure all inventory is accounted for.
  • The office did not document criteria for historical documents to ensure valuable documents are kept and preserved beyond the established retention period.
  • The office does not have a quality assurance process for digitizing and retaining older documents, recording and marriage processes, and City Clerk processes.
  • Management has not defined how often it should review policies and procedures.
  • The office did not complete a workforce analysis.
  • Office management did not update policies and procedures for redaction to proactively redact certain personally identifiable information before making it available online.
  • The office did not retroactively review records accessible online to redact certain personally identifiable information.

By not fully addressing all the recommendations, the Office of the Clerk and Recorder may be exposed to future risk.

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Auditor's Letter

April 7, 2022

In keeping with generally accepted government auditing standards and Auditor’s Office policy, as authorized by city ordinance, the Audit Services Division has a responsibility to monitor and follow up on audit recommendations to ensure city agencies address audit findings through appropriate corrective action and to aid us in planning future audits.

In our follow-up effort for the “Records Management” audit report issued in May 2021, we determined the Office of the Clerk and Recorder fully implemented only six recommendations — less than half of the 17 recommendations we made in the original audit report. The office partially implemented four recommendations but did not implement seven. Therefore, the risks associated with the audit team’s initial findings have not been fully mitigated. As a result, the Audit Services Division may revisit these risk areas in future audits to ensure the city takes appropriate corrective action.

We have communicated separately with the Clerk and Recorder’s Office about the status of additional recommendations related to personally identifiable information, which we reported confidentially because of their sensitive nature.

The Highlights page in this report provides background and summary information about the original audit and the completed follow-up effort. Following the Highlights page is a detailed implementation status update for each recommendation.

I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the personnel in the Office of the Clerk and Recorder who assisted us throughout the audit and the follow-up process. For any questions, please feel free to contact me at 720-913-5000.

Denver Auditor,

Auditor's Signature
Timothy O'Brien, CPA

 

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AUDITOR TIMOTHY O'BRIEN, CPA
Denver Auditor


Denver Auditor´s Office

201 W. Colfax Ave. #705 Denver, CO 80202
Email: auditor@denvergov.org
Call: (720) 913-5000
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