Auditors fault social service background checks

SACRAMENTO — California does a poor job of screening social services workers and sometimes allows people with arrests or convictions to work in facilities that care for children, adults and seniors, state auditors said Tuesday, though they offered no examples of harm resulting from the lapses.

The state Department of Justice stopped providing complete criminal histories last year and the information it does provide is often tardy, auditors found.

The state Department of Social Services, meanwhile, does not review all required criminal histories before it grants exemptions allowing people to work in licensed facilities. The department also granted exemptions allowing more than 40 people to get licenses between 2013 and last year despite being convicted of identity theft, pimping, pandering or certain sex crimes.

Auditors also faulted Social Services and four other departments within the California Health and Human Services Agency for not sharing critical information with each other.

As a result, “Social Services does not receive all of the information it needs to protect vulnerable clients,” auditors said.

Portions of the report “are somewhat disturbing,” said Bob Alvarez, a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Kathleen Galgiani of Stockton, who sought the audit. He said Galgiani may seek changes in state law as the auditors recommended.

Among other things, auditors said lawmakers should add to the list of crimes that keep individuals from obtaining a state license.

Auditors found one case where the justice department did not disclose that an applicant seeking a license had committed assault with intent to murder as a minor.

All told, auditors found six times in 2014 and 2015 where justice officials did not notify the department of convictions, though department officials found out in other ways. Two of those convictions — for child abuse and for inflicting pain on an elderly or dependent adult — were enough to disqualify the applicant from getting a license.

A pending bill, SB420, by Democratic state Sen. William Monning, of Carmel, would require justice officials to disclose more information.