California State Auditor: high-risk local government agency audit program.

Existing law authorizes the California State Auditor to establish a high-risk local government agency audit program for the purpose of identifying, auditing, and issuing reports on any local government agency that the California State Auditor identifies as being at high risk for the potential of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement or that has major challenges associated with its economy, efficiency, or effectiveness. Existing law requires the California State Auditor to notify the Joint Legislative Audit Committee whenever he or she identifies a local government as at high risk. Existing law also requires that audits conducted pursuant to these provisions be approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. This bill would authorize the California State Auditor to conduct an initial assessment at a local government agency prior to conducting an audit, during which he or she may gather publicly available information from a local government agency and any additional information that the local government agency is willing to provide, for the purpose of identifying whether or not it is a high-risk local government agency. The bill would require the California State Auditor, before beginning an initial assessment at a local government agency, to notify the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in writing which local government agency will be assessed. Existing law requires the California State Auditor, if the California State Auditor establishes the above described program and determines that a local government agency is at high risk, to issue audit reports at least once every 2 years with recommendations for improvement in the local government agency identified as at high risk. This bill would instead require those audit reports to be issued once every 3 years. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 8546.10 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2822 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2822 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.