Manuel Luna of the Office of the State Auditor told a legislative committee the auditor’s office has updated its OSA Connect platform to accept digital signatures and is encouraging mobile document scanning and secure file exchange to make audits faster and less costly for small rural entities.

“People are scanning and uploading things for me,” Luna said, explaining the office’s move to accept mobile-scanned documents and electronic signatures to reduce the need for physical scanners and printers in small jurisdictions.

Why it matters: Many small political subdivisions and land grants lack office infrastructure and face long travel distances for auditors. Luna said adopting phone-based scanning, secure portals (for example, OneDrive or SureLink), and e-signatures can reduce travel time and audit costs, increase timeliness and expand compliance among entities with modest budgets and few staff.

Luna described pilot steps the office has taken to help entities under $50,000 in annual revenue by allowing mobile uploads and digital validation of tier certifications and noted the office has used consolidated procurement to invite independent public accountants (IPAs) to bid for multiple small entities simultaneously, lowering per-report costs. “I was able to negotiate better prices,” he said, describing a process that grouped delayed audits together so a small IPA could complete multiple reports more affordably.

Security and records retention: Committee members asked about data security and storage. Luna said auditors and IPAs must keep audit workpapers and that secure-file sharing services are appropriate for the pre-public-report stage; the auditor’s office treats submitted documents as part of audit workpapers and requires IPAs to comply with retention and confidentiality rules.

Ending: The auditor asked the committee to continue encouraging digital adoption among rural entities and offered to share details of the OSA Connect enhancements and IPA engagements to lower audit backlogs.