It wouldn’t be a new legislative session without another attack from our Legislature on the North Dakota State Auditor’s Office. This is my fourth session as State Auditor and each session has presented attempts by certain legislators to harm this office and our ability to share transparent audit reports with the citizens of North Dakota. These attacks have continued to ramp up and are getting worse as we identify more and more issues across all levels of government.
Clearly, our Legislature believes more in shooting the messenger than holding government accountable. The citizens of this state should be concerned with what these legislators have to hide since they’re trying to undermine our office.
Our office is the only office that receives scrutiny when other people do something wrong. We follow state law and federal standards, and we have a duty to report what we found to the people we serve — the people I work for — the citizens of North Dakota. Our office saves the state millions of dollars every year by discovering waste, abuse, and fraud from state and local government agencies.
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The Legislature is coming after our office yet again. House Bill 1508 was introduced as a way of eliminating funding to our office.
This is the worst bill our office has ever encountered. These are the reasons why:
• For local government audits, we could only charge 1/1,000th of 1%. To be clear, that is a ridiculously small number. An organization with a $1,000,000 operating budget would be charged $10 for an audit.
The Auditor’s Office only audits 15% of local government agencies in North Dakota. The remaining 85% of local government agencies that use a private firm would still be paying a firm the full cost for an audit. 15% of local government entities would have a few dollars for an audit bill, the rest would be charged the full amount from a private firm. Our office’s average billing rate is $112 per hour. The average bill rate for a private firm to conduct an audit is $157 per hour.
• North Dakota taxpayers will be subsidizing the federal government for three different audit areas that we receive federal funds to the approximate tune of $1.3 million biennially.
• One of the shots fired in this bill is at me directly. My background is serving our country in the Air Force, I also hold an Associate Degree, a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, have a Master's degree, and prior work experience as the Accounting Manager for the Public Service Commission. Apparently, this isn’t enough. Under this bill, I would also be required to add three letters to my title, of CPA. Nationally, this is an unusual request, with less than half of State Auditors having such credentials.
• The most insulting part of this bill is that several bill sponsors — including the person who introduced this bill — refused to meet with our office to discuss any of their concerns. We reached out on numerous occasions, asking the bill sponsors to meet with our team. Rather than have a productive conversation helping answer their questions, they’d rather splash out a bill that essentially eliminates an entire section of our office who is responsible for being a watchdog in government.
This is not just misinformed legislation, this is bad legislation that is targeting myself and our office for doing our job. We are here to serve the public, to make sure your taxpayer dollars are being used the way they should. No one should be afraid of our office if you’re doing the right thing.
This is not meant to paint a broad brushstroke across every legislative member. There are legislators who are champions of our office, and we deeply appreciate their support and goal of bringing transparency to government.
During the House floor session, we had a legislative member say on record that “the Auditor’s Office is laundering money and double dipping.” Before our legislative members accuse a State Office of criminal offenses, they should know what those words mean. To throw around an accusation like money laundering, especially when it’s aimed at the organization that serves as the watchdog for government, is irresponsible.
I’m asking you to not let corrupt government officials stand in the way of accountability. I’m asking you to contact your elected legislators today, tell them to vote do not pass for House Bill 1508. You deserve to know where your tax dollars are going. Don’t let bureaucrats push freedom aside for more backdoor corrupt deals.