Michigan auditor general briefs House Oversight Committee on audit role, powers and procedures

Auditor General Doug Ringler told the Michigan House Oversight Committee on Thursday that the Office of Auditor General is a legislative agency charged with after‑the‑fact financial, performance and investigative audits and exists to “be independent fact finders and fact providers to assist you in your decision making.”

The briefing gave committee members an overview of audit types, the office’s statutory and constitutional basis, typical audit scope and methodology, and how agencies respond to findings — information lawmakers said they want to use to guide oversight and potential follow‑up actions.

Ringler opened the presentation by saying the office was created under the Michigan Constitution (1963) and by statute and that it performs three core audit products: post financial audits, performance audits and investigative audits. “We are a legislative agency. We’re here to be independent fact finders and fact providers to assist you in your decision making,” Ringler said. Deputy Auditor General Laura Hurst walked members through the office’s annual report, the different audit products and the report layout that legislators will receive.

Hurst said the office’s work is split roughly evenly between financial and performance audits — “You can see from the graph there that we our audits are split pretty evenly between financial and performance audits” — and described other products including preliminary survey summaries, limited‑scope…