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County audit finds gaps in prevailing-wage monitoring; DEO vows fixes and ILA reviews
Summary
An Auditor's Office process review identified missing SOPs, inconsistent certified-payroll review, weak complaint tracking and understaffing in prevailing-wage monitoring; the court directed DEO to work with OCA, OMB and the County Attorney to ensure ILAs provide adequate staffing.
The Harris County Auditor (internal audit) presented a process review of prevailing-wage compliance that identified multiple control and resourcing gaps: desk procedures lack detail; certified-payroll review steps are not standardized; worksite interviews and risk-based sampling are inconsistent; and complaint investigations lack centralized tracking. Auditors recommended updated SOPs, competency frameworks for monitors, automated exception reporting in LCP Tracker and a formal complaint-management program.
Interim DEO Executive Director Jae Woo and Assistant Director Gary Greer told the court DEO has begun implementing many audit recommendations, held an all-day prevailing-wage training, plans to adopt enhanced LCP Tracker functions for case management (at added cost) and will work with user departments (for example, Harris Health) to renegotiate ILAs so monitoring capacity matches project volume. The court voted to direct DEO to work with OCA, OMB and the County Attorney to ensure ILAs calling for county assistance include adequate staffing.
