KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
May 8, 2018
By Brian Roewe
Bishops’ conference announces request for proposals for firms to conduct 2020-22 annual audits
The search process has begun for the next compliance auditor for the U.S. bishops’ clergy sexual abuse policies.
In a press release April 30, the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a request for proposals for firms to conduct the 2020-2022 annual audits of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, also known as the Dallas Charter.
Since its adoption in June 2002 at the bishops’ meeting in Dallas during the peak of the church’s clergy sexual abuse crisis, the charter has called for an audit process as part of an annual public progress report issued by the conference’s Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection. The audit has been conducted each year since 2003.
The 2016 audit, the report most recently released, was conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners, an auditing firm based in Rochester, New York. StoneBridge has audited the charter since 2011 report, and is under contract to oversee the next three-year cycle (2017-2019), as well.
James Marasco, a founding partner at StoneBridge, told NCR the firm, whose contract expires in 2019, has been invited to submit a bid for the next audit cycle, but has yet to make a decision. The deadline for letters of intent is June 10, with final proposals due by Aug. 30, followed by an interview process in the fall.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.