Meeting Recap

by Rick Osborn

The passage of ESHB 1064 – Performance Audit of the Executive Branch of State Government, excluding transportation-related agencies; ESSB 6103 - Performance Audit of the Executive Branch Transportation-Related agencies, excluding the Department of Licensing and the Washington State Patrol; and finally, Initiative 900 – Performance Audit of State and Local Governments has provided the State Auditor’s Office the legal status to do Performance Audits.  At least for State Agencies, this is a legal authorization that Brian Sonntag had been seeking since he was elected State Auditor.

The Initiative provided funding source to pay for the audits and as such, the sources provided for in the House and Senate bills may be released.

The challenges for the Office are to reconcile the authorizations, identify, resources, and beginning the planning phase of what to audit.

Part of reconciling the authorizations, is the establishment of the Citizens Advisory Board and the identification of resources.

In conjunction with the Governor’s Office some aspects and tools have been identified for obtaining quality results.  These include the identification of the priorities of government, the focusing and accountability of government and agency leaders, and the actual identification and performance of the audits.

Since there being authorized SAO has created a new Division of Performance Audit, which has been involved in the following planning and coordination activities;

• Reconciling the legal mandates

• Conduction initial surveys

• Identifying best practices

• Involvement in the budget process for their funding sources

• Coordinating with Joint Legislative Audit and Recommendation Committed and the Transportation Audit Board

• Developing audit protocols

• Establishing a Performance Audit strategic plan and performance measures

• Establishing management information systems specifications

Additionally, the Performance Audit Division has been recruiting and hiring a management team and identifying potential audit areas.  Initially, the SAO is looking at contracting for performance audits until such time as they can identify, hire, and train their own staff.  The presents a challenge due to the fact that the State Auditor’s Office made the transition to “all electronic workpapers” and they will require the contracting firms to have compatible software.  As with any new “audit shop”, they have had challenges finding office space and arranging for computer resources.  A final challenge is working within the State Personnel and salary structures to “create” a new audit series.

As part of the Division’s outreach program and establishing protocols, they have received inquires from a number of the large Counties and Cities, who have established and in some cases, mature performance audit units and operating Audit Committees.  These County and City Councils, as well as, their performance audit units are concerned about what the State Auditor’s Office will or will not audit and how they will coordinate with these established units.  To this end, there is a Local Government Audit Director’s Roundtable meeting with Ms. Long schedule for February of 2006.

This is an exciting period for the local and state government audit community to observe and coordinate with the State Auditor’s Office.