State auditor urges clearer audit universe, more cybersecurity help and data analytics

State Auditor Josh Galien told the task force that the auditor's statutory list of local governments that must submit financial reports needs clarification so the office can enforce consistent transparency without inadvertently expanding workload beyond capacity.

Galien said recent code changes clarified some water‑resource district reporting but that many entities — for example townships and some senior‑program mill levies — are not clearly captured. "If they're a taxing mill level of mill levy authority, you have a reporting requirement that may include townships," he said, but added that adding townships would more than double the auditor's small‑government workload and require additional staff.

Galien proposed three near‑term efforts: (1) clarify the auditor's audit universe in statute so taxing authorities are unambiguously required to file; (2) pilot a free cybersecurity assessment service for small local governments in coordination with NDIT to verify basic protections; and (3) invest in an auditor data‑analytics team to cross‑reference datasets (for example driver’s license or payroll data) and identify eligibility or fraud outliers more quickly. He noted some agencies (e.g., the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit) maintain datasets that are not shareable for legal reasons, but urged better interagency cooperation where possible.

Galien offered that expanding oversight and analytics would produce better transparency and earlier detection of problems but requires resources and legislative direction. The task force did not vote on statutory changes; members raised the need to weigh workload and funding implications before widening reporting requirements.