Just a few days ago Maryland House Bill 189 was filed which would extend-out the time interval to perform school board audits to once every six years.
Unlike the present law - which is set to expire on June 30, 2010 - under the newly proposed law - HB 189 - would allow the audit to be extended out to six year intervals instead of present law - every three years.
The current law reads;
(i) At least once every 3 years, the Office of Legislative Audits shall conduct a fiscal/compliance audit of each unit of the State government, except for units in the Legislative Branch.
The new law states;
Once every 6 years, the Office of Legislative Audits shall conduct a fiscal/compliance audit of each unit of the State government, except for units in the Legislative Branch.
In light of recent controversies surrounding Wicomico County Board of Education spending practices and expense account reports for WCBOE officials - I strongly urge each residence to contact their elected State representatives and let them know how you feel about extending-out the audit period.
In my estimation - the prudent thing to do is to require the Office of Legislative Audits to, instead, shorten the audit period to say every year as opposed to every six years. The shortened time span will help to hold this massive agency accountable to the most important segment of the public - the taxpayers.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
11 comments:
What are they trying to hide?
Taxpayer money should be accounted for EVERY year! Every penny!
Under current law per State Government Article Section 2-1220(e) of the Annotated Code of Maryland, school systems were to be audited once between 7/1/2004 and 6/30/2010. This proposed bill will require that school systems be audited every 6 years. This bill does not shorten the timeframe for school audits as the timeframe was never 3 years to begin with. Only State agencies are audited every 3 years. This bill ensures that schools will continue to have audits performed.
Re: 7:58
Something doesn't look right because item no. 2 of the law says 'the audits can be held concurrently or separately'.
I see what you are reading, but, if the audit period is for July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2010 -(6 years) -then why are they listing multiple audits. If that is the case then the BOE is already in violation of existing law as the legislative auditing should have been done annually for each of the last 6 years.
Does anyone out there know when the last Legislative audit for the Wicomico County Board of Education was performed?
'Enquiring minds want to know'
The time frame of 7/1/04 to 6/30/10 is the time that was set for performing audits of ALL 24 local school systems ONCE. Item 2 refers to the fact that more than one school system audit could be performed at the same time. Look at the Office of Legislative Audits website for all school system audits performed.
8:19.
the initial law required all schools systems to be audited once within that 6 year period. This is the first time the school systems had been audited by Office of Legislative Audits. the new law is proposing that the school audits be performed once every six years indefinitely. "concurrently or separately" means that the 24 school systems can be audited at the same time or separately, but still only once every 6 years.
This is what is wrong with our lawmakers. The laws they make are so confusing that no one including the judges can figure them out. It must be intentional because there is no excuse for doing it this way, just keep it simple, clear and to the point. Every government orginazation that I am familier with requires an audit every year, no exceptions and that is the way it should be. How much money can be wasted or stolen in six years without an audit?
And people wonder why they are run so ineffiecent. BOE can waste billions of tax dollars and then correct the problem within the time frame they have before the Auditors arrive. They are notified well in advance of an audit. Yes, I know what I am talking about because I came from the system.
I just got through reading the law.
I'll tell you what condition I think the State of our State is in!
It's in a State of Confusion. What a mess to allow any organization to have only one audit for each 6 year interval.
I agree with 9:45 posting - the audit should be conducted every single year. That is the way the IRS defines reporting and accounting of income.
BOE's receive an audit from external auditors and MSDE annually.
BOE gets an MSDE audit every year which looks at funding uses, grant money, and other program spending.
BOE contracts with a private accounting firm to audit financial transactions annually.
BOE had a legislative audit - which looks at fiscal practices - not transactions - in 2008.
Report is:
http://www.ola.state.md.us/top_pgs/Publications/pubs_school.html
These audits take 6 months, with 4 full time auditors from the State costing taxpayers thousands. The legislative audits were the knee jerk legislative reaction for all the education losses in Baltimore City. Slowing these audits down will save everyone money. They are not designed to find embezzlements, etc.
The Wicomico ounty Bd of Ed undergoes an independent audit every year. In addition, it is also subject to audits by the federal government and the MD State Dept of Ed. These are in addition to the legislative audits.
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