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	Analysts Urge Better Records, Screening By Beverley Wang The Associated Press, carried in Portsmouth Herald March 31, 2006 http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/03312006/news/95317.htm CONCORD - New Hampshire's Roman Catholic Diocese must step up training and screening of church employees and volunteers who work with children and keep better track of people, according to an independent audit released Thursday. The diocese does not have a standard for ensuring everyone working in a parish camp, school or church has completed a criminal background check and child-abuse prevention training. It also doesn't regularly check whether a staffer is a registered sex offender. There's also no consistent method for keeping accurate personnel records, auditors concluded. "The diocese's inability to ensure that all personnel are adequately and timely screened could afford potential perpetrators access to minors," said the report by KPMG International, an audit, tax and advisory firm. Auditors performing the survey of how the diocese is keeping up its sexual abuse prevention plan looked at personnel records for clergy and laypeople working in the church. The audit is part of a 2002 agreement between the state and Diocese, which ended a criminal investigation of sexual abuse in the church. In a review of 186 files of priests active since the agreement, auditors found that nine were missing criminal record checks; 11 were missing screening forms reporting whether they had ever been the subject of a sexual abuse investigation; and 16 were missing proof they had received training on child-abuse reporting rules. Auditors also reviewed records at two parishes, one high school and a camp, and found that none kept complete records. "While the diocese appears to have trained thousands of key personnel on issues relating to the sexual abuse of minors, it has not demonstrated that it has established a comprehensive plan to identify the full body of individuals and train all personnel who have contact with minors as required by the agreement," it said. Some of the auditors' recommendations: • Files for all church personnel, from clergy to volunteers, should be created to ensure all records are complete. (Some record keepers told auditors they did not start personnel files for individuals until receiving completed papers.) • Parishes and the diocese should reconcile staff and volunteer lists every month. • Criminal background checks should be repeated every five years. Officials should perform the checks, not rely on reports submitted by staff. • All personnel suspected of inappropriate conduct with children, sexual or otherwise, should not have contact with minors. • Diocese officials should actively confirm that individuals accused of abuse have been removed from service, rather than relying on the word of parish officials. • The diocese should set down consistent procedures for investigators looking into abuse claims, and sign contracts with each.
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