Lawmakers are moving ahead with a bill rewriting the scope of their own auditing office, after inserting language to affirm the agency’s long standing practice of making its reports public.
The Legislative Auditor’s office is just another one of the hundreds of offices and divisions that often work in the background of state government.
They keep an eye on the state’s wallet, looking at how the money is spent, and how the agencies perform essential jobs from foster care to highway repair.
The Legislative Auditor’s Office serves as a watchdog, compiling reports for lawmakers, including reviews of state agencies and licensing boards.
But it also looks into specific issues — over the last few years, it has done routine audits on West Virginia’s more than 300 volunteer fire departments, how local Boards of Education spent federal pandemic monies and how the state Supreme Court may have abused its office with excessive spending.
These reports are first given to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance — as has been the practice since 1992 — before they are released to the public.
As introduced, SB 687 could’ve curtailed the watchdog function of the office, which has been indispensable for the media and the assortment of politicos that troll the streets of Charleston.
The bill further clarified that in addition to the joint committee, audits can also be ordered at the direction of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House.
As John Silvia, director of the Performance Evaluation and Research Division within the Legislative Auditor’s Office, told a Senate committee earlier this month, the bill just put into law what was “already being done on an implied basis.”
But in rewriting the statute spelling out the office’s duties and role, the original bill removed language that specified that audit reports are public records, as has been the custom for years.
These changes launched the ire of the West Virginia Democratic Party, who late last week accused the supermajority of taking over an “independent” office that has never been independent.
In a statement released to the press and on social media, Del. Mike Pushkin, party chairman, said the bill “makes it easier to conceal wrongdoing, errors, and fraud within state agencies. The implications of such a shift are dire, as audit results — vital for public scrutiny and accountability — will no longer be accessible as a public record.”
On Monday, the state Senate approved the bill by a 20-14 vote after lead sponsor Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, offered an amendment that would require the release of auditor reports and reinstating regular reviews of agencies — another point of criticism from the minority party.
The bill now goes to the House.
