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Audit director: hiring freeze and a longtime auditor's retirement leave internal-audit understaffed
Summary
Buncombe County's new audit director told the audit committee a countywide hiring freeze and the announced retirement of senior auditor Lisa White have left the internal-audit office with two unfilled staff-auditor roles, limiting how many audits the office can complete this fiscal year.
The internal-audit director told Buncombe County's audit committee that the county is under a hard hiring freeze that prevented filling two staff-auditor positions and that "our 1 auditor, Lisa White, has said that she wants to retire at the end of January to spend more time with her family." The director said the county's response to Hurricane Helene and related operational shifts prompted a reevaluation of audit priorities and slowed recruitment.
The director said the vacant roles include a general staff auditor and a specialized IT auditor she planned to hire when the freeze lifts, and that training new hires will take time. She asked the committee to accept a narrower scope for this fiscal year's work: "We're already halfway through the year...at this point, it's just going to be me," she said, urging the committee to prioritize one high-impact audit while she completes a revised risk assessment for next year.
Committee members acknowledged the staff constraints and the difficulty of budgeting during a period of fiscal pressure. One commissioner said the commission values staff sacrifices and asked that the director present executive summaries for reports to limit meeting time and additional workload.
