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Legislative auditor asks committees to follow up on six FY25 ‘top audit issues’, flags FEMA billing delays
Summary
State legislative auditor Chris Curtis told the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee she recommends referring six unresolved FY25 audit findings for further committee oversight, including federal disaster grant billing delays that auditors said involved about $279.8 million in expenditures and an estimated $1.3 million in lost investment earnings per month while billing was delayed.
At the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee meeting on Feb. 5, 2026, State Legislative Auditor Chris Curtis reviewed corrective actions for the Division of Legislative Audit's FY25 "top audit issues" and recommended forwarding six unresolved findings to the legislative committees identified in the audit-status matrix.
Curtis told the committee the matrix summarizes agency responses and her office's recommendations. "As noted in the matrix, I do not recommend following up on findings that are resolved or on findings that the Division of Legislative Audit will be following up in their annual financial and federal compliance audits," she said. Curtis identified Issues 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 as needing further legislative consideration.
Issue 6, Curtis said, involves the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health failing to coordinate timely billing for federal disaster grants, a delay auditors said affected approximately $279,800,000 of federal disaster grant expenditures and produced lost investment earnings. When Representative Kauff asked whether the FEMA-related amounts had been recovered, Curtis replied, "I believe that the department has finally billed for the revenues," and said the committee should pursue timing details during the budget process; she added the audit estimate of lost earnings was about "1,300,000.0 of lost investment earnings per month" for the period measured at the end of FY24.
Other items Curtis recommended for referral include: Issue 7 (Department of Corrections overspending its FY24 budget); Issue 8 (unaddressed budget shortfalls across three departments); Issue 9 (the Alaska International Airport's struggle to produce audited financial statements for consolidation into the state's statements); Issue 10 (material internal control deficiencies and federal noncompliance in the Division of Public Assistance); and Issue 12 (findings from a special audit of the Office of Children's Services related to foster care reform).
Curtis said her office will work with the committee chair to formally refer the selected items to the legislative committees named in the matrix and noted that some findings are being tracked through routine annual financial and federal compliance audits and therefore do not require separate committee action.
The committee did not vote on the referrals during the meeting; Curtis recommended follow-up work be taken up in the committees and budget processes with jurisdiction for the underlying programs.
What’s next: Curtis will coordinate with the committee chair to issue formal referrals of the listed findings to the legislative committees named in the audit matrix, and budget committees were identified as a logical venue for drilling into recovery timing for the FEMA-related billing.
