OCA Audit Reports

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Issued: December 2004

SUMMARY

Our objectives for this report were to provide Council with information about the Utility’s efforts toward eliminating wastewater overflows, to identify high-risk areas within these efforts, and to assess the controls in place to address identified high-risk areas.

We found that the Austin Water Utility, through the Austin Clean Water Program (ACWP), is proactively identifying and addressing many risks that could impact the successful completion of the program and compliance with an EPA Administrative Order.

Specifically, we identified ten issue areas that had medium to high inherent risks and found that controls reduced seven of these to medium or low vulnerability. Although no issue area received the highest risk rating, there were three issue areas where efforts being made by the Utility to address risks related to the program may not be sufficient. These remaining risks are that:

• Delays related to real estate acquisition, project bidding, or construction conditions could impact the December 2007 deadline.
• A shortage of contractors bidding on ACWP projects could drive up project costs, increase the potential for collusive fraud by bidders, and impact project schedules.
• A number of factors could increase planned expenditures on ACWP projects.

We have communicated the results of our work to management, including risks that are not addressed in our current list of proposed audits and will continue these discussions with the Utility as we develop our 2005 service plan. We appreciate the cooperation we have received from City management, the Austin Water Utility, and Austin Clean Water Program team members.

Click here to go to our audit request form to request a hard copy of this report (Report No. AU04102) or download the entire text of the Austin Water Utility EPA Compliance (Size: 312 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files.

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