Systemic Control Deficiencies and Audit Failures in Court Fee Processes

$100,000-$500,000+ annually (collection agency commission fraud potential of 5-15% of collected amounts, undetected overstated commission deductions of $25,000-$100,000+, audit fines $50,000-$150,000 for lack of vendor fraud controls, cost of forensic audit to identify theft, potential restitution if payments misapplied) • $100,000-$500,000+ in uncollected court revenue annually; $50,000-$250,000 in audit fines and remediation; reputational damage; potential State Board sanctions or loss of court funding • $120,000 - $300,000 annually in staff labor hours (IT admin + records manager) performing manual fee operations; $50,000 - $150,000 in undetected fee billing errors and overcharges; audit fines $100,000 - $350,000 for control deficiencies and data integrity failures

Batch fee schedules reviewed manually, spreadsheet-based case tracking, email reminders for outstanding fees, no systematic escalation procedures, inconsistent documentation • Collections Officer manually calculates fees based on case type memory, creates informal notes on fee adjustments (handwritten), uses WhatsApp or phone calls to communicate waivers/discounts instead of system-recorded policy • Collections Officer receives sporadic reports from collection agency (via email or mail), manually compares to internal ledger, uses Excel to flag discrepancies, lacks automated reconciliation; no documented fraud risk assessment or commission audit policy