Auditors bill to formalize special reviews and access leadership data raises privacy concerns in committee

Representative Quam brought forward a bill on March 11, 2025, to establish a formal special reviews division within the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA), clarify when agencies must report possible misuse of public resources to OLA, and to authorize OLA to request data from Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) in certain leadership-level inquiries. The House State Government Finance and Policy Committee voted to re-refer the measure to the Judiciary Committee.

The bill, described by Legislative Auditor Judy Randall as largely "housekeeping," would (1) elevate an existing special reviews unit to a statutory division, (2) expand OLAs authority to conduct special reviews in response to allegations of noncompliance with legal requirements beyond strictly financial matters, (3) authorize follow-up special reviews, (4) clarify agency reporting obligations about suspected misuse of public money or unauthorized disclosure of data, and (5) set a process for OLA to obtain certain communications or other data from MNIT when inquiries involve agency leadership. Randall also proposed repealing Minnesota Statute 16B.045 because its IT-audit language is redundant with OLA's existing authorities in statute 3.971 subdivision 6A.

Why this matters: supporters said the changes would modernize OLAs ability to respond to complaints and make internal processes consistent; critics said some…