1. What is your department s primary purpose and objectives?

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1 1. What is your department s primary purpose and objectives? The Auditor of State s office is responsible for auditing more than 5900 units of local and state government on an annual or biennial basis. In addition to these duties, the Auditor of State employs the Ohio Performance Team which carries out performance audits of local governments as well as state agencies. The Auditor of State s office also has statewide jurisdiction on public corruption cases by government officials. 2. What is your department s past and anticipated workload, the number of staff required to complete that workload, and the department s total number of staff? Also provide a breakdown of how many staff work in administration, customer service, or in the field. Since 2011 our staffing level has decreased by 5% and is holding steady now. In FY 16, our office issued 3,820 financial audits which include financial, basic, and compliance audits, Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP s), and basic audits. In FY 17, our office has issued 2,670 audits as of the date of this submission. As of the budget submission to the Office of Budget and Management, our office is authorized to employ 812 total employees including full time permanent employees, part time employees, intermittent employees, and interns. All of our employees provide customer services to both our clients and our Constituents. Our office currently employs 779 employees broken down as follows: 712 Audit Staff (113 of these positions provide direct customer service to our clients and Constituents) 67 Administrative Staff (Includes Finance, IT, HR, Public Affairs, Legislative Affairs) 3. Please identify the rules adopted by your department and explain how these rules are consistent with the legislative mandate of the department as expressed in the statutes that created and empowered the department? The Auditor of State s office has 14 different OAC chapters totaling 40 rules. The sections outline the proper procedures for filing financial reports with our office. Other provisions in our rules include billing rates for the Uniform Accounting Network (UAN), which is utilized by the majority of villages and townships. Additionally, we prescribe how much training a fiscal officer is required to take under HB 10 of the 130 st General Assembly as well as the template for an affidavit to petition removal of a fiscal officer. 4. Does your department s jurisdiction or any of its programs overlap or duplicate those of other departments? If so, what is the extent to which your department coordinates with those other departments and the extent to which the department s programs could be consolidated with the programs of other state departments?

2 Our office has very little overlap with other offices in the state. However, duties of the Ohio Inspector General and the Ohio Ethics Commission in investigating corruption, wrongdoing, and malfeasance by government officials do overlap with the duties of this office. 5. Is your department necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of the public? If so, how? Yes, the office s primary function is to protect the fiscal integrity of the state of Ohio. By guarding against fraud, waste, abuse, the Auditor of State is the chief accountability officer for the state of Ohio and protects Ohio tax dollars. 6. What is the amount of regulation exercised by your department compared to such regulation, if any, in other states? The Auditor of State s office establishes the Regulatory Basis of Accounting which is utilized by numerous small local governments in reporting their annual financial statements that are not required to file using the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis of accounting. (GAAP) and other standards set by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) are utilized by larger units of governments (Counties, cities, schools, etc.) as required by Ohio Revised Code. We audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards established by the American Institute of CPA s (AICPA) and Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards established by the Governmental Accounting Office and the Comptroller General of the USA. The AOS also issues guidance to state agencies, boards and commissions and local governments and schools through Auditor of State Bulletins. The AOS also issues the Auditor of State Audit Manual that directs our auditors on the approach they are to utilize in completing the statutory audits completed by the office. This risk based audit approach, first implemented during the Petro administration, and refined and improved during Auditor Yost s administration has been inquired about and utilized in one form or another in several states. 7. Describe the general costs and impact of your department s activities on Ohio s businesses and individuals. The core functions and general costs of the Auditor of State s office do not have a direct impact on businesses or individuals. 8. Identify and explain your customer service standards and what methods you use to monitor or improve customer service at your agency. The Auditor of State s office is committed to serving our clients with the highest standards possible. All of our employees have responsibility for delivering a benefit to our clients the taxpayers. Specifically, the UAN Department employs a committed team of customer service specialists for local officials having difficulties navigating the system. Additionally, similar to other Constitutional offices, the office has a network of regional liaisons to ensure our clients

3 are receiving the high quality of service that is expected from our office. We also employ a Local Government Services section specifically dedicated to assisting local governments (including schools) in fiscal distress. 9. Please provide an assessment of the authority of your department regarding fees, inspections, enforcement, and penalties. Our office assesses a $25 a day penalty for late filers on annual financial statements which shall not exceed $750 as stated in the Revised Code. The Auditor of State is a reporting agency. We complete in excess of 4,000 engagements on an annual basis in which we inspect and report on the financial records, transactions and reports of state agencies, boards, and commissions and also local governments and schools. The office has a set rate for audits of state agencies of $68 per hour set by the Statewide Cost Allocation Plan and a rate of $41 per hour for local government audits (a rate subsidized by the state). Additionally, user fees for UAN are provided in the rules contained in OAC Has your department s operation been impeded or enhanced by existing statutes and procedures and by budgetary, resource, and personnel practices? If so, which sections? Recently passed statutes and procedures have enhanced the purview of this office. SB 4 authorized the office to conduct state agency performance audits. We are now able to extend our performance audit capabilities to state universities and colleges with the passage of HB 384. Additionally, HB 5 of the 131 st General Assembly allows our office to conduct feasibility studies for local governments to determine the possible efficiencies that could be achieved through shared services. The feasibility studies are grants funded through the Leverage for Efficiency, Accountability and Performance (LEAP) Fund. 11. Has your department recommended statutory changes to the general assembly that would benefit the public as opposed to the persons regulated by the department? If so, have those policies been adopted and implemented? All recommendations made by this office benefit the public by promoting accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline in government. 12. Has your department required or requested any persons it regulates to report to it the impact of department rules and decisions on the public as they affect service costs and service delivery? The Auditor s office regularly meets with its clients and uses feedback to innovate our services for faster, cheaper, more tailored service delivery. For instance, there has been an increase of

4 basic audits, Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) since these options were made available. Any new requirements from our office are first brought up for discussion with these local government advocates to ensure local governments to make sure all parties are fully informed Describe how your department encouraged public participation in its rule-making and decisionmaking? The Auditor of State s office follows all protocols set forth by JCARR and notifies all interested parties in a timely fashion of any rule changes being made by our office. 14. What is the process for formal public complaints that are filed with the department? And how are they resolved? Any issues with an audit are handled by our audit staff in a timely manner. The office has a process for responding to any complaints with our office in a timely and professional manner. 15. Does federal law require that Ohio perform some or all of the tasks of your agency? If so, what functions are required and how are they met? "The Single Audit Act of 1984," 98 Stat. 2327, 31 U.S.C.A et seq., requires our office to audit a public office each year if that entity is required to receive an annual audit. Any public entity that expends more than $750,000 in federal dollars has to be audited annually by this office. 16. Please describe in detail how any state regulation or rule, of your department, exceeds or differs from any similar federal requirements with a similar impact. The Auditor of State s Office (AOS) is charged with the obligation of auditing Ohio governmental entities not only as to financial transactions and accounting practices, but also in relation to compliance with applicable state and Federal legal and regulatory requirements. As such, AOS focuses on state mandates, Federal tax obligations, and, as to audits involving the expenditure of Federal funds, grant and allowance requirements. Because of the proximity and extent of the audit processes, AOS is able to more closely evaluate and monitor in these areas, and to make appropriate findings, as well as referrals to enforcement agencies. 17. Please identify the department s practices and methods to comply with public records requests; any methods to make your records more generally available or online; the number of public records disputes during the last 2 years and the top 3 record types that are requested by the public.

5 The Open Government Unit ( OGU ) responds to all public records requests submitted to AOS. Upon receiving a request for records, the OGU saves all of the pertinent information requester s name, requester s contact information, records requested, date of request, individual who received the request, and region (when applicable) in the OGU Database. We also save the initial request, all of our communications regarding the request, and the responsive records in a folder on the Legal shared drive. If redactions are necessary, we save the redacted version, as well as the original version. We maintain information in the database because it allows us to view the number of requests we have open at any given time, and it enables us to search our closed requests should we need to do so. Any communications with a requester and/or an AOS employee in the retrieval of the records are always saved just in case a conflict should arise down the road in regards to a specific request. The AOS website was recently modified to make searching for an audit report much easier. We have not experienced a public records issue that has risen to the level of a dispute. When a requester is unhappy with the records he or she has received, we ensure that everything has been provided and communicate that to the requester. If everything has not been provided, we apologize to the requester and immediately provide the missing record, as well as determine what caused the issue. If there is a misunderstanding regarding what records were requested, we work with the requester to discern what he or she is requesting and promptly provide the records. The top three record types requested are management letters, audit reports which are readily available online, and competitive bidding score-sheets which are frequently requested by IPA s. The Public Integrity Assurance Team s investigatory records and audit work papers are also often requested.