State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s almost unprecedented announcement that her workplace has begun an audit of the state Legislature shouldn’t be being met with applause.
“Under the Massachusetts Constitution and as the separation of powers clause dictates, the Senate is required to manage its own business and set its own rules,” a spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka instructed the Herald.
On Tuesday, DiZoglio, in step with a long-standing marketing campaign dedication, introduced the Office of the State Auditor had begun an audit of the House and Senate.
“As I committed, my office has begun an audit of the state Legislature. We hope this will increase transparency, accountability and equity in an area of state government that has been completely ignored,” the previous state Senator from Methuen mentioned in a press release saying the audit.
According to DiZoglio, the final time her workplace performed an audit of the Legislature’s procedures and practices was in 1922, whereas Massachusetts “ranks as one of the least transparent and least accessible state governments in the nation,” she mentioned.
However, in accordance with Spilka’s spokesperson, the Senate has been audited yearly, as required by their inner guidelines.
“Those rules require that the Senate undergoes an audit every fiscal year by a certified public accounting firm experienced in auditing governmental entities and provide that audit to the public,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Further, Senate business is made public through journals, calendars and recordings of each session, while payroll and other financial information is publicly available on the Comptroller’s website.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano’s workplace didn’t provide touch upon the proposed audit.
The audit announcement was met with some assist from outdoors the State House, nonetheless.
“If Auditor DiZoglio is actually able to make good on her promise to audit the legislature, it will be a welcomed check on the power of the most opaque state government in the country and a victory for the people of the Commonwealth,” Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, mentioned in a Wednesday assertion.
DiZoglio instructed the Herald Tuesday she shouldn’t be at liberty to debate exactly what her workplace is trying into however {that a} full public report could be made obtainable when the audit is full.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”