The Auditor of State is the constitutional officer responsible for auditing all public offices in Ohio, which encompass more than 5,900 local governments, agencies, and organizations.
The Auditor of State's office conducts audits of cities, villages, schools, universities, counties, fire districts, townships, cemeteries, libraries, state and county agencies, and commissions.
The chief deputy auditor manages the entire Audit Division, which encompasses a staff of more than 600 auditors. The division is made up of several smaller sections, which includes the Financial Audit Group, the Center for Audit Excellence, and the Medicaid/Contract Audit Section. The Audit Division is managed from the main office in Columbus, as well as in seven regional offices in the Central, East, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and West areas of Ohio. In addition to the seven regional offices, the State Region (also located in Columbus) audits state offices, boards, commissions, and agencies.
Generally, the Auditor of State’s office is required to perform these financial audits at least once every two fiscal years; however, many audits are performed annually. The office reviews the methods, accuracy, and legality of the accounts, financial reports, records, and files of all public entities. It is the responsibility of the Financial Audit Group to determine whether the entity has complied with the law, rules, ordinances, and orders pertaining to the office.
Each fiscal year, the Auditor of State’s office releases approximately 4,000 financial audits. A portion of the audits are conducted by Independent Public Accounting (IPA) firms.
An entity is determined to be in an unauditable condition when its accounts, records, files, or reports have been improperly maintained and are not adequate to complete the audit. The Auditor of State’s office will notify the entity of the procedures needed to bring its accounts, records, files, or reports into an auditable condition to complete the audit. Failure to bring records into an auditable condition could result in legal action. An entity is removed from the unauditable list once the audit is completed and released to the public.
Since November 2009, the Auditor of State has helped lower the audit costs for Ohio’s smaller entities through the use of Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP). AUP engagements narrow the scope of work to review key internal controls and perform targeted testing of significant transactions for qualifying public offices. The process allows for lower audit costs and reduced billed hours while providing accountability for the public dollars government entities receive and spend.
To make these affordable audits available to more governments, the Auditor of State’s Office recently expanded access to AUP engagements for governments with annual expenditures of less than $5 million, up from $1 million. Traditionally, an AUP engagement saves governments anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of full audit costs, leaving more opportunities to put taxpayer money where it does the most good — providing services. As many as 1,400 of Ohio’s local governments may be eligible for AUP engagements.