The Colorado Office of the State Auditor told the Joint Judiciary Committee on Jan. 8 that a 2024 performance audit of the Office of the State Public Defender (OSPD) found high attorney workloads, inconsistent eligibility documentation, and incomplete training records, and that agencies statewide have implemented the large majority of prior audit recommendations.

Deputy State Auditor Michelle Collin and managers from the audit office told the panel the OSPD audit compared the office's caseloads for fiscal year 2023 against national and Colorado studies and found the majority of attorneys had caseloads exceeding recommended standards. "Depending on which of the standards you look at, 46 to 99% of the attorneys had caseloads that exceeded the standards," Trey Stanley said.

The auditors recommended a new workload study so the public defender office can set updated staffing guidelines. The audit also found problems in eligibility determinations for representation: in a sample of 28 applications auditors found two with insufficient documentation to confirm eligibility and seven files lacking required documentation. Finally the audit identified gaps in training records for new attorneys; about 5% of sampled trainings lacked complete documentation. The audit included 11 recommendations; the public defender agreed with 10 and partially agreed with one. The auditors expect the office to provide a status report to the legislative audit committee later in 2025.

Beyond the public-defender audit, auditors summarized the state's annual report of recommendations not fully implemented. The audit office said agencies had implemented roughly 92% of recommendations issued between fiscal years 2019 and 2023; 110 recommendations were unimplemented as of June 30, 2024. The Joint Judiciary Committee asked specifically about the Office of Information Technology (OIT), which accounts for a substantial share of outstanding items. Deputy Auditor Collin said many OIT recommendations involve confidential IT-security matters that will be addressed in executive session with the joint technology committee.

Auditors also highlighted high-priority unresolved recommendations in the Department of Public Safety. Farminia Hebert said the department had 42 recommendations over the five-year period and one remaining high-priority deficiency related to federal reporting for disaster grants. The audit stated the department had not submitted required federal reports under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act and classified the issue as a material weakness on a financial audit. Department of Public Safety officials told the committee that they expected to implement the required reporting processes.

Committee members used the audit briefing to press agencies on timelines for implementation. Auditors advised the committee that the SMART Act requires these updates and that the report is intended to help members hold agencies accountable for overdue recommendations.