State Auditor Diana DiZoglio says Beacon Hill is blocking a voter-approved audit and asks court to intervene

Diana DiZoglio, Massachusetts State Auditor, said legislative leaders have refused to provide her office with the taxpayer-funded receipts necessary to carry out an audit the public approved at the ballot.

"They have refused to provide my office with even one taxpayer-funded receipt so that we can do the audit that the taxpayers asked us to conduct," DiZoglio said, describing the refusal as "incredibly disappointing and concerning." She said roughly 72 percent of voters supported the ballot measure authorizing the audit.

DiZoglio said she has asked the Supreme Judicial Court to allow her office representation so the audit law can be enforced. "We have actually filed suit in the Supreme Judicial Court to ask the court to intervene and to allow us representation to sue the legislature so that this law can be followed," she said. The auditor added that the state attorney general has filed a motion to strike the suit on behalf of the House speaker and the Senate president.

The auditor framed the court filing as a step to enforce the will of voters. "I am asking the courts to allow me to have representation so that this issue can get decided on behalf of the 72 percent of people who went to vote on this issue," she said.

As a parallel strategy, DiZoglio said she and a group of advocates are backing a public-records reform initiative on the November ballot that would make the governor's office and the Legislature subject to the state's public-records law. "I'm asking people to please vote yes on that initiative," she said, describing the change as a way to give residents direct access to receipts and documents if those offices decline to provide them to the auditor.

"This public records law, if passed, would create parity and it would allow for the legislature and governor's office to have to show the receipts to every member of the public who requests those receipts," DiZoglio said, calling the measure a "workaround" if the Legislature continues to deny her office access.

DiZoglio described audits her office has pursued into contracting and settlement practices, saying those reviews exposed problems with nondisclosure agreements and confidentiality clauses that can hide discrimination or other abuses. "The work that we've done in my office to shine a light on contracting processes and how settlement agreements including the use of nondisclosure agreement language are used throughout state government" is, she said, among her proudest accomplishments.

She also spoke about her background in elected office, saying her earlier work in the State House and as a legislative aide led her to run for state representative and later state senator before winning the auditor's office. DiZoglio said transparency and accountability are issues that can unite people across party lines.

A listener on the program described difficulty finding a permanent group home; DiZoglio offered to help by connecting the caller to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and local legislators and by using the auditor's office to examine housing programs for performance problems.

DiZoglio said the next step in the audit dispute is the court's decision on whether her office may be represented to press the lawsuit; she declined to speculate about timing. For contact or more information, DiZoglio directed listeners to the auditor's website, www.mass.gov/auditor.

The interview concluded with expressions of thanks and no formal vote or other agency action announced on the show.