Audit Report on the Automated Child Care Information System of the Human Resources Administration

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

We performed an audit on the Automated Childcare Information System of the Human Resources Administration (the Department). The Automated Childcare Information System (ACCIS) was developed in 1999 by Department in-house staff as a childcare case management and payment system to improve the timeliness of payments to childcare providers and individuals eligible for childcare benefits. In 2001, ACCIS was modified and expanded to aid public assistance clients with their childcare needs. In that regard, ACCIS can issue childcare vouchers, assign children to provider waiting lists, make payments to providers, and produce invoices, letters, transmittals, and notices of termination of benefits. It currently supports approximately 30,000 active HRA cases while processing approximately $600 million in payments annually.

The audit found that ACCIS met the objectives and overall goals of Department management and allows for future enhancements and upgrades. In addition, the Department followed a formal system methodology when developing ACCIS, and the system has been adequately incorporated into the Department’s disaster recovery plan.

The auditors’ survey of the system’s users found that although 86 percent of the respondents are happy with ACCIS, 50 percent of the users stated that they would like to see changes made to the system. Fifty-five percent reported a variety of technical and training issues that should be addressed, and thirty-eight percent stated that ACCIS is not user-friendly. Finally, ACCIS access controls need improvement.

The audit makes four recommendations, namely that the Department:

• Ensure that all user concerns are addressed.
• Conduct user surveys periodically to identify user concerns.
• Promptly delete from the system all inactive, terminated, and multiple user identifications (IDs) and test-IDs.
• Require and enforce periodic changes in user passwords and the selection of unique user IDs.
• Reduce the number of employees with the capability of creating user IDs.