A state agency’s anti-human trafficking unit was dismantled after performing poorly on a recent internal audit.
An investigation by the Texas Scorecard discovered that despite having been given a $1.5 million bump in its taxpayer-funded budget, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s (TDLR) anti-trafficking work had been found “unsatisfactory” by internal auditors.
The agency does not intervene directly in suspected human trafficking operations but rather makes referrals to law enforcement agencies, such as the Office of the Attorney General.
However, an audit report dated September 2023 showed that auditors found TDLR’s now-defunct Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU) to have had incomplete and inconsistently used procedures, resulting in some “high-risk” ratings. This meant that inspections were missing records and that notifications of inspections and requests for assistance were not being completed in a timely manner.
In a statement to the Texas Scorecard, Tela Goodwin Mange, TDLR’s communications manager, explained that while the auditors “found room for improvement,” they “did not find that TDLR or the anti-trafficking unit failed to do…
