Alaska Division of Legislative Audit
Audit Digest #02-4530-00

---

* Requires Acrobat Reader

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

In accordance with Title 24 of the Alaska Statutes and a special request by the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, we conducted an audit of the Department of Administration, Public Defender Agency (PDA).

The objectives of this audit were twofold:

• To determine if PDA funding and related expenditures allow for efficient and effective operations in accordance with laws, regulations, and administrative policies and procedures.
• To determine if PDA management and operations are efficient and effective in providing for adequate representation of clients in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and court rules.

Our time study indicates that the agency is not sufficiently staffed to keep current with its caseload. However, this staff shortage may be covered, in part, with the addition of lower paid positions, such as investigators, paralegals, legal secretaries, and other clerical positions. Further, bringing PDA office technologically up-to-date will add efficiencies to its provision of public defense services.

Based on the results of our time study and its application to the PDA caseload for the period November 1, 1996 through April 30, 1998, PDA is short attorney positions. In order to determine how PDA could be short positions and still manage its caseload, we looked to the amount of uncompensated overtime that PDA attorneys work. In our surveys to the PDA and ex-PDA attorneys, we asked for the number of hours, on average, they worked each week. The results of the survey show that PDA attorneys work, on average, about 21 hours of uncompensated overtime per week. We applied the time study data and the amount of uncompensated overtime hours to be worked by attorneys to the caseload. The numbers of positions needed are shown at the right depending on the number of hours worked per week.

Also, the necessary data to allow for future evaluations of the courts’, prosecutors’ and public defenders’ workloads needs to be captured.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. PDA management should develop its budget requests, in part, using caseload data.
2. PDA management should address inefficiencies related to technological equipment and staff configuration.
3. PDA management should implement a process to confirm and maintain the integrity of its attorney time estimates.
4. The Alaska Court System (ACS) should record its appointments of PDA and Office of Public Advocacy (OPA) as public defense counsel in its case management information system and ensure its transmittal to the integrated criminal justice information system.
5. The Criminal Justice Information Advisory Board should assist ACS, Department of Law, PDA and OPA in developing caseload measurement data.
6. The Division of Administrative Services in the Department of Administration should improve its oversight of state expenditures and property.
7. PDA management should ensure compliance with statutes and administrative policies and procedures related to expenditures and property control procedures.
8. The commissioner of the Department of Public Safety should appoint a public defense representative to the Drug and Violent Crime Advisory Committee.

* Requires Acrobat Reader