The union leader called this sudden move announced Wednesday that shifts the responsibility for school audits to the state Department of Education on April 22 'an irresponsible action.'
DeFoor announced on Wednesday he was transferring the responsibility for conducting public school audits to the state Department of Education on April 22. He said those audits are an education department responsibility that his agency took on 30 years ago and can no longer perform because of short-staffing and budget cuts.
He noted the education department lacks the staffing capacity to take on this work. The auditor general had as many as 120 auditors performing it in 2013. Today, that number is down to 46 auditors, all of whom were told their jobs are being eliminated. “We were not doing fiscal audits of school districts,” said spokeswoman April Hutcheson. “Those audits are being done by independent CPA firms hired by the school boards to audit their funding.”
In his letter, Askey faulted DeFoor for failing to notify lawmakers during budget hearings about his plan to shift this responsibility to the education department “so this could be addressed as part of the state budget.”
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