BATON ROUGE - A state audit revealed several areas of concerns within the Office of Technology Services (OTS), which is the department responsible for handling Louisiana's IT issues.

The report was conducted after public feedback pointed to issues related to OTS's poor customer service, lack of communication, and slow resolution of help desk tickets, as well as a lack of accountability and transparency.

The audit revealed that concerns were valid.

It highlighted the following areas in which OTS can improve:

-The department needs to strengthen its customer-service framework

-OTS should develop specific procedures for handling complex service requests

-The agency needs to improve communication between its various sectors

-The department must improve methods of tracking all IT projects and other types of documentation. 

In addition to the areas of concern listed above, the audit found problems related to staffing and employment. 

For example, when employees retire or leave, their positions are left vacant for too long and this has a negative impact on the department's ability to operate. 

One area of improvement, however, was found in OTS's response time to resolve service requests.

Between 2016 and 2018, the department reduced the amount of time it takes to respond.

Service desk teams reduced the overall time it took to resolve tickets from 12.4 business days in fiscal year 2016 to 2.3 business days in fiscal year 2018, and field teams reduced resolution times from 14.9 business days to 4.6 business days during the same timeframe

One key area that the audit did not focus on was data security, this is because the audit was performed prior to the November 16 hack. 

Click here for more detailed information on the audit.