Guardians care for some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable adults. But they lack proper oversight and training.

Yet, there is inadequate oversight, nonexistent training, limited accountability and few consequences when any of the state’s 41,000 guardians fail to meet their responsibilities, according to a new report released Wednesday by the state Legislative Auditor.

Minnesota also doesn’t adequately ensure that guardians are appointed only when appropriate, said Caitlin Badger, who managed the evaluation for the Office of the Legislative Auditor, a nonpartisan office that audits state government.

The result, she said, is a system in dire need of increased attention and improvement.

“Given the magnitude of issues we identified throughout our research, we believe that it’s time for the Legislature to take some substantial steps to bolster the administration and oversight of adult guardianship in the state,” Badger told members of the Legislative Audit Commission in St. Paul.

First, Badger said, the Legislature should establish a centralized “entity” to administer and monitor guardianships. Currently, such work falls to each of 10 judicial districts, which take different approaches and dedicate varying amounts of staff time.

“Moving guardianships under a single entity will help the state to unify the responsibility for ensuring the proper performance of staff,” she said. “It’ll help reduce the number of staff working on guardianship and hopefully improve accountability and consistency within the system overall.”

For example, she said, the Legislature could consider centralizing this work within the state court administrator’s office. One way to do this is setting up a separate board within the judicial branch.