2003-06-11 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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,. ~ Kim Moore-Sykes From: Sent: Subject: Auditor's Update [auditorsupdate@osa.state.mn.us] Wednesday, June 04, 2003 12:47 PM State Auditor's E-Update The Auditor's E-Update is the official online news publication of the Minnesota Office of the State Auditor. Contents: 1. Legislative Wrap-up 2. Financial Report on Minnesota's Small Cities 3. Findings on Southside Neighborhood Housing Services 4. Report on Municipal Liquor Stores 1. Legislative Wrap-up In an effort to reduce mandates and promote greater efficiency during these fiscally difficult times, the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) worked with the Legislature to pass a number of measures that will benefit local units of government. A. County Audits During the past legislative session, an important change was made that removed the requirement that the OSA annually audit all counties and cities of the first class and in its place the OSA was given discretion over these annual audits along with some additional oversight if the audit is performed by a private CPA. Several interested groups, including the Minnesota CPA Society, the Minnesota Inter-County Association (MICA), the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC), and the OSA all worked on and agreed upon language that was adopted by the legislature. For the year ended 2003 the State Auditor will exercise her discretion and will audit all counties as has been the case in the past. Over the course of the next year, the OSA will be setting up county audit schedules, and developing the auditing standards to be used by private CPA's performing county audits. In order to avoid the duplication of effort and cost, it is the OSA's intention to take the time necessary to make sure standards, policies and procedures are set up correctly. Since the OSA remains ultimately responsible for accepting the audit or not, we want to avoid a situation where there are adding additional costs to the audit either by an extensive review or of further audit procedures. Taking the time now to set up county audit schedules and to let private CPA's know what procedures are required, will minimize and hopefully eliminate the need of additional audit procedures. Furthermore, this change will allow the OSA to focus more of its resources on other units of local government without reducing accountability to the public and compliance on the part of county governments. B. Repeal of the Legal Costs Survey In 1997, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law requIrIng the OSA to collect information on the costs of legal services incurred by all counties, cities, and most school districts. During the recent legislative session the OSA supported the repeal of this mandate and we are happy to report that the legislature approved the repeal. There will be no more legal cost survey forms coming to you from the OSA. C. Best Practice Reviews Since 1994, the Office of the Legislative Auditor has performed these reviews, but 1