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An Audit Report on The Office of the Attorney General's Compliance With Debt Collection Requirements

December 2002

Report Number 03-012

Overall Conclusion

For fiscal year 2002, the Office of the Attorney General (Attorney General) complied with debt collection requirements in the General Appropriations Act (Rider 6, page I-11, 77th Legislature). The Attorney General is required to attempt to collect all delinquent debts owed to the State. Its fiscal year 2002 target for debt collections was $44 million; it collected $53.5 million for that period. The Attorney General also reported that, at fiscal year end, it was pursuing debts totaling $245.8 million.

The majority of debt collections are remitted to the Comptroller of Public Accounts. The Attorney General can retain a percentage of debt collections (excluding child support collections) as part of its method of financing up to a maximum of $16.6 million for the biennium. The Attorney General did not exceed this maximum. In addition, $16.9 million was collected during fiscal year 2002 for the payment of workers' compensation claims, which have a limit of $18 million for the biennium.

This audit included tests to assess the accuracy of the Appropriations Database, which the Attorney General uses to manage and report its debt collections. For the files tested, information in this database was accurate and documented. Moreover, controls over access are sufficient to adequately protect the data.

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