NEWS ADVISORY

March 2, 2005

Performance audit bill striker?

OLYMPIA—Sen. Pam Roach (R-Auburn) introduced a new performance audit bill today (SB 6076) which closely resembles the draft bill the state auditor's office (SAO) and House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) previously worked on but was never brought to the House floor for consideration. With today's deadline for bills to be passed out of committee looming, it is unlikely SB 6076 will meet the deadline. However, with the full Senate yet to take action on the performance audit bill passed by the House (ESHB 1064), it is possible Sen. Roach's new performance audit bill could resurface as a striker amendment to the House bill.

SB 6076 addresses the performance audit values that State Auditor Brian Sonntag has advocated over the past twelve years—audit independence; citizen, employee and private-sector involvement; and regularly and publicly reporting the results, making its adoption likely preferable to Sonntag than the bill passed by the House. It also reflects the provisions of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's performance audit pledge signed by 70 legislators and the state auditor.

The key provisions of SB 6076 include:

• The state auditor is clearly authorized to conduct performance audits and has the discretion of whether or not to contract for those audits (ESHB 1064 requires the state auditor to contract out any audits);

• The state auditor alone establishes the criteria for performance audits (ESHB 1064 does not allow the state auditor to establish audit criteria, leaving that power to an unelected political board);

• The state auditor is responsible for performance audits of state government (ESHB 1064 places an unelected political board on equal footing with the state auditor, in effect creating a veto over the state auditor should disagreement exist);

• An eight member "citizen accountability advisory board" is created with all members being eligible to serve as chair and able to vote (ESHB 1064 creates a ten member political board of which the state auditor is a non-voting member and prohibited from serving as chair);

• The "citizen accountability advisory board" is charged with establishing an agency performance grading system with the results of those scorecards annually reported to the public (ESHB 1064 also has this provision);

• The state auditor is authorized to conduct performance audits of transportation related agencies (ESHB 1064 leaves this power to a political board);

• The state auditor is authorized to conduct performance audits of local government using local funds if requested by the local legislative authority (ESHB 1064 also has this provision); and

• Funding for these performance audits is required to be equal two one-hundredths of one percent of each biennium's general fund state operating budget [approximately $5 million for 2005-07] (ESHB 1064 also has this provision).

"Sen. Roach's new proposal addresses each of the problems identified in the House bill and meets the expectations the state auditor laid out in his original draft bill," said Jason Mercier, budget analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. "It will be interesting to see if the Senate seizes the opportunity to pass truly independent and comprehensive performance audits or if that duty will be left to an initiative to the people."

Additional Information
Independent performance audits within reach

Contact: Jason Mercier | Budget Research Analyst | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org