| 29. | Does your commission currently perform or not perform audits that review any of the following? |
| Check one for each row. |
| Perform | Not perform | Not applicable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. Affiliate transactions/cross subsidies | ||||
| b. Merger/acquisition/capital structure changes | ||||
| c. Ratepayer protections/ring fencing | ||||
| d. Other (please specify below) | ||||
| For what other items does your commission perform audits? |
| 30. | To meet state commission statutory and regulatory requirements, but excluding the annual financial audit of your utilities, what types of audits do each of the following auditing organizations perform? |
| Check all that apply for each entity. |
| Affiliate Reviews | Mergers/ acquisitions |
Ring Fencing | Affiliate Transactions | Other Financial Audits | Other Audits | Organization does not perform audits | Do not know | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. Commission Staff | |||||||||
| b. Other state staff (e.g. ratepayer advocate staff) | |||||||||
| c. Consultant and/or certified public accountant | |||||||||
| d. Utility staff | |||||||||
| e. Other (please specify below) | |||||||||
| What other organizations perform periodic audits? |
| 31. | A full-time equivalent (FTE) is a unit that measures the number 40-hour per week staff persons over the course of a year. For instance, if four staff work full time for three months, that would be one FTE (4 staff X 3 months of full-time work = 12 months). For the last year, how much of your Commission staff time in full-time equivalents (FTEs) has been dedicated to auditing various requirements for holding companies and affiliates for electric and gas utilities? |
| 32. | Considering both Commission staff and consultants, looking back over the past 3 years, how many days (FTE), during an average year, are spent conducting special audits for each of the following? (Note: Time spent should only include stand-alone investigations and should exclude rate case proceedings where these areas may also be addressed.) |
| Enter a number for each row |
| a. Holding company | ||
| b. Affiliate transaction (includes either individual transactions or all services provided by an affiliate) | ||
| c. Merger/acquisition/capital structure changes | ||
| d. Ratepayer protections/ring fencing | ||
| e. Other utility financials | ||
| 33. | Of the staff dedicated to audits, how many of your auditing staff holds the following certifications or credentials? |
| If a staff person has more than one qualification, please count that person in all the applicable categories. |
| a. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) | ||
| b. Certified Internal Auditors (CIAs) | ||
| c. Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs) | ||
| d. Attorneys | ||
| e. Other (please specify below) | ||
| What other certifications do your staff hold? |
| 34. | Within the last five years, about how many separate reviews of holding company/affiliate transactions, including auditing and investigations, has your staff performed? |
| 35. | Considering the entire universe of affiliate transactions, what percentage of all individual affiliate transactions do you estimate your commission has audited in the past 5 years? | ||
| (Check one.) | |||
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. | |||
| 5. | |||
| 6. | |||
| 7. | |||
| 36. | Within the past 5 years, how much staff time, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), would you estimate has been spent reviewing affiliate transactions? |
| 37. | Does your state have or not have each of the following authorities regarding violations of affiliate transaction rules? |
| Check one for each row. |
| State has authority | State does not have authority | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| a. Denial of cost recovery | |||
| b. Authority to impose financial penalties for clear violations of affiliate transactions or other holding company/utility rules | |||
|
c. Reduce the rate of return/ Set punitive rate orders |
|||
| d. Revocation of operating certificate | |||
| e. Criminal prosecutions | |||
| f. Reverse the transaction | |||
| g. Other (please specify below) | |||
| What other possible sanctions can be imposed for violations? |
| 38. | Within the last five years were the following possible outcomes of commission/state reviews of affiliate transactions? |
| Check one for each row. |
| Possible outcome | Not a possible outcome | No review of this transaction type | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. Denial of cost recovery | ||||
| b. Fines and/or damages | ||||
| c. Utility rate reduction/punitive rate orders | ||||
| d. Litigation | ||||
| e. Settlement | ||||
| f. Revocation of operating certificate | ||||
| g. Criminal prosecutions | ||||
| h. Reverse the transaction | ||||
| 39. | Of the audits conducted in the past five years, how often would you estimate your audits result in identification of each of the following? |
| a. Number of fines or punitive rate adjustments (list the number of instances) | ||
| Unknown | ||
| b. Total dollar amount of fines or punitive rate adjustments (list total dollar amount) | $ | |
| Unknown | ||
| 40. | In addition to the Commission's penalty authority, does your state have an unfair and deceptive practices act that provides the Commission or another state agency authority to take action on abusive practices affecting consumers in the utility industry? | ||
| (Check one.) | |||
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. | (Click here to skip to question 42.) | ||
| 5. | (Click here to skip to question 42.) | ||
| 41. | Within the last five years has your state used such additional authority under those laws to prosecute abusive practices in the utility industry? | ||
| (Check one.) | |||
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. | |||
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