State auditor pivots FY26 request to data tools and audit-quality hires, seeks $1.75M

Greg Griffin, speaking for the Department of Audits and Accounts, told the General Government Subcommittee that the agency is pivoting from its original budget submission and now seeks roughly $1,750,000 in fiscal 2026 funding focused on non-staff operating costs, audit-quality staffing and data-analytics talent.

Griffin said the audit profession faces “significant pressures,” including heightened demands on audit quality from new auditing standards and inflationary increases in vendor and subscription costs. He described a request of about $750,000 for operating expenses to cover inflationary pressures and to embed subscription costs for data-analytics tools the agency tested last year. Griffin said the agency has spent about $250,000 so far evaluating two analytics tools and would need to budget recurring subscription costs if the tools are adopted.

To address new audit-quality requirements, Griffin requested three manager-level positions at an estimated total cost of about $570,000 (including overhead). He also requested three data-analytics positions to accelerate the agency’s analytics program at an estimated total cost of about $405,000 (including overhead). Griffin said the revised request totals roughly $1,750,000, down from an original request of about $1,900,000 made in September to the Office of Budget and Planning in the tracking sheets.

Griffin noted that if approved, the Department of Audits and Accounts’ FY26 budget would be about $48,000,000, which he said is roughly 0.08% of the approximately $60,000,000,000 in expenditures the department audits each year. He told the committee these investments are intended to preserve audit quality and efficiency as audits become more data-driven. Committee members responded with support and indicated they would consider the request; no formal action was taken during the session.