WASHINGTON — Even though Roman Catholic bishops are following reforms they adopted to prevent sex abuse by clergy, flaws have limited their effectiveness.

That's the conclusion of an audit overseen by former FBI officials that was released Jan. 6, according to The Associated Press.

The study recommended changes that victims have been advocating for years, including improved monitoring of guilty priests and a survey of victims asking how bishops should respond to abuse claims.

The reforms were adopted in June 2002. The scandal began in January 2002 with revelations about a single predatory priest in the Archdiocese of Boston and spread to every American diocese.

The review found that 90 percent of the 195 U.S. dioceses were complying fully with the plan. Among the 20 judged not fully compliant are the archdioceses of New York; Anchorage, Alaska; and Omaha, Neb., the news service reported. The plan dictates how guilty priests should be punished and requires bishops to protect children.

The most common violations were failures to put child-protection programs in place, to establish codes of conduct and to carry out background checks on diocesan workers.

"For the most part, it was not a refusal to adhere to the policies, it was a lack of understanding of how to do so," said William Gavin, a former FBI official whose company, the Gavin Group of Boston, conducted the audit.

Nearly 70 percent of the dioceses were commended for exceptional progress in some area, such as communicating with parishioners, and the Archdiocese of Chicago was singled out for helping victims obtain counseling, according to the news service.

Investigators, however, also found that some accused clergy could not be located, and that five accused priests in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati still were in ministry at the time of the audit, a violation of the policy. They have since been removed and the archdiocese has been deemed to have come into compliance.