- Office of the State Auditor
Good afternoon Chairwoman Gregoire and members of the Committee. It is an honor to join you today to discuss two measures that I have brought forward that will make government more effective, efficient, and accountable.
First, I’d like to discuss H.6, An Act Improving Government Accountability. When crafting this legislation, my staff and I sought to stay true to the mission with which the voters of the Commonwealth tasked us in the 19th century when they supported the establishment of an office whose mission would be to hold agencies accountable for adequately serving their constituents and provide recommendations to help those agencies work better. We did so, while also envisioning what my office would look like if it were created today, instead of in 1849.
This bill does three things:
First, it modernizes the work of my office. It recognizes that much has changed in the 170 years since the first state auditor, David Wilder Jr., took office. For starters, it updates the gender pronouns used in my office’s enabling statute. While I am proud to be the first female state auditor in the Commonwealth’s history, I’m more pleased by the knowledge that I will not be the last. As such, this bill will make all pronouns related to my office gender-neutral.
More substantively though, this measure seeks to address one of the most significant hindrances we face when conducting audits: timely access to information. The work of my office is often slowed by bureaucratic feet-dragging when we request information from auditees. These delays sometimes stretch for months. Under this legislation, auditees will have ten business days to respond to requests for information from my office. You’ll note this is the same standard that the legislature set for agency responses to public records requests.
This bill also acknowledges the information that auditees possess that we need to conduct our work is often no longer stored in analog form, but rather in electronic databases and information warehouses. This bill will clarify that whether the information is stored physically or electronically—in a file cabinet or in the cloud—it must be provided to my office in its native format.
The term native format refers to the datasets and systems as they are actively used by the auditee, rather than datasets that an agency creates, collates, or otherwise manufactures specifically for audit purposes. This also refers to physical files needed to conduct our audit work. This bill ensures we will have access to those physical files, rather than a memo summarizing those files or a database tracking those physical files. Having access to files in their native format reduces the risk of unintentional errors that could creep in when an agency produces information in an alternative format and ensures my auditors can draw their conclusions based on original-source information.
This bill ensures that our office has access to all relevant data that agencies possess, even data with personally identifying information or other highly sensitive content. The work of my office, whether it involves the activities of MassHealth or DCF, requires that we are able to analyze this information. We understand the responsibilities and commitment that come with this access. This is why we have implemented comprehensive training and security protocols to ensure we use this information properly and protect it adequately.
Obviously, even with the passage of this bill, federal privacy protections may still keep some information beyond our reach, and we will also still have to commit to the same privacy protocols observed by the audited agencies, but it is imperative that we update and strengthen our existing statute to overcome the delaying tactics we encounter regularly. This legislation will go a long way towards that goal.
Second, it allows my office to more effectively use our resources, particularly the time and talents of our staff. This bill recognizes that the risks to taxpayers posed by small entities with limited budgets are not as significant as those posed by vast agencies with expansive missions and large budgets. This bill will enhance our risk-based approach to auditing, in which our efforts are focused on the most vulnerable areas of activity, while still ensuring that every state agency is audited at least every five years.
Finally, this bill will hold agencies accountable for addressing the issues identified in our audits. Currently, several months after we release an audit we ask auditees to report to us what they have done to fix problems we have identified. We have no authority, however, to compel responses or the ability to verify the accuracy of information auditees provide. This bill will allow our office to require auditees to develop corrective action plans to fix issues we have identified, and submit periodic reports on their progress implementing these plans. These reports would not only be provided to my office but also the Governor and the Legislature, so they can independently assess whether an agency’s corrective actions are sufficient.
Modern. Effective. Accountable. These are standards by which my auditors evaluate the activities of government agencies and contractors, and it is in these areas that this bill will help my office better meet our mission. It is for these reasons that I ask that you support H.6, An Act Improving Government Accountability.
Next, I would like to briefly discuss another bill before this committee, H.5, An Act Improving the Internal Controls within State Agencies. This measure is one of the most straightforward proposals this committee will likely see this legislative session. And I’d like to acknowledge the Comptroller of the Commonwealth, Andrew Maylor, who is here today, and thank him for his support of this measure.
Currently, state agencies and departments must report to my office when funds or property goes missing or is damaged. This measure will first extend this requirement to independent authorities, such as the MBTA, regional transit and housing authorities.
Second, it allows the State Comptroller to establish regulations related to these reporting requirements, including a threshold at which agencies must submit these reports to my office. Today, whether an agency loses a quarter or a piece of property valued at a quarter-of-a-million dollars, this loss is treated the same and must be reported by the agency, and processed and examined by my office. By allowing the Comptroller to establish regulations and a reporting threshold, it will enable agencies—including my own—to more effectively and reasonably use their resources.
Finally, this measure will direct the Comptroller’s Office to establish a training program for state agencies to help them develop and implement required internal control and reporting policies and procedures.
For these reasons, I ask that you also support H.5, An Act Improving the Internal Controls within State Agencies. In the session that just concluded, this committee, as well as House Ways & Means, approved this bill, although it received no further action.
In the Auditor’s Office, we constantly work to meet and exceed the highest national standards of government auditing. We understand that to be an effective voice for accountability, we must lead by example. These two measures before you today will help us continue this record of excellence, and I thank you for your consideration of both of them and am happy to answer any questions from the committee.