Skip to main content

An Audit Report on Campus Safety and Security Emergency Management Plans at Texas Health-related Institutions

August 2009

Report Number 09-050

Overall Conclusion

Texas's nine public health-related institutions (institutions) have controls in place to monitor their highest risk research laboratories, which are laboratories that use animals, radioactive materials, or select agents and toxins with the potential to pose a severe threat to human, animal, or plant health. However, the institutions should improve their monitoring of their lower risk research laboratories by ensuring that there are policies and procedures in place for overseeing research laboratories that use hazardous chemicals and/or biological materials.

In October 2008, the State Auditor's Office issued An Audit Report on Campus Safety and Security Emergency Management Plans at Texas Public Universities (State Auditor's Office Report No. 09-009) that covered the 35 Texas public universities but did not include the health-related institutions. In this report, auditors reviewed emergency management plans, annual crime reports, and research laboratory policies and procedures for the nine institutions.

All nine institutions have designed and implemented campus safety and security emergency management plans. These plans should include ongoing risk assessment, monitoring, and testing of the plans to ensure an appropriate response in the event of an actual emergency. The institutions could improve their emergency management plans by ensuring they are up to date, approved by institution management, and comprehensive.

Five of eight institution'' annual crime reports complied with all reporting requirements of the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). Three of the eight institutions' annual crime reports addressed the missing elements after auditors brought the requirements to the institutions' attention. The ninth institution is not required to report annual crime statistics under the Clery Act because it does not receive federal student financial assistance, and it did not prepare an annual report under the Clery Act.

Contact the SAO about this report.

Download the Acrobat version of this report. (.pdf)

If you prefer an HTML version, follow this link to an Adobe site which converts PDF files to HTML.