Legislative audit division briefs appropriations subcommittee on performance‑audit process

Deputy Legislative Auditor Will Solar told the appropriations subcommittee that legislative performance audits are a tool committees can use to examine program effectiveness and spending. Solar said he circulated a memo from Legislative Auditor Angus McKeever that asks appropriation committees to consider performance‑audit ideas and forward them for the audit committee’s ranking process.

Solar told the panel the audit division operates three distinct audit functions — financial audits, information‑technology audits and performance audits — and that his performance team has piloted an abbreviated “short‑form” product suited to answering narrow, risk‑focused questions for appropriators. “If you want to understand how something’s really working, the audit division is probably a good tool or a good thing to deploy,” he said.

Solar described the usual selection timeline: committees and other stakeholders suggest topics early in the budget process, the audit committee considers candidate topics in the June timeframe, ranks them and that ranking forms the audit team’s workload. He said capacity for the performance audit team is limited — roughly six to eight topics a year, depending on scope and staff resources — and noted larger subjects (for example Medicaid) require more staff time.

Committee members asked about past audit history for the department under review and requested records. Solar agreed to provide recent audit lists and described the division’s practice of embedding staff in agencies during audits. Agency staff confirmed the audit reports are archived and searchable back to at least 2019; committee members requested up to 10 years of audit history for the section in the committee’s work program.

Solar offered to answer follow‑up questions and suggested the subcommittee could hold a short working session to develop and prioritize audit ideas before forwarding them to the audit committee.