AN ACT to amend and reenact section 54-10-01, subsection 5 of section 54-10-14, and sections 54-10-22 and 54-10-27 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to audits conducted by the state auditor and charges for audits.
SB2251 revises several provisions governing the North Dakota State Auditor’s duties, audit authority, billing practices, and reporting obligations. The bill updates the auditor’s core responsibilities for state agency financial and performance audits, clarifies when audits may be performed more frequently, and adds detailed quarterly reporting requirements to the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee on communications, billing, audit costs, schedules, and report distribution practices. It also preserves the auditor’s authority to contract with private firms, while requiring advance notice to the committee and, in some cases, approval before contract costs can be charged to an agency.
The bill also changes rules affecting political subdivisions and occupational or professional boards. Political subdivisions would have to retain 25 percent of progress payments to public accountants until the audit is accepted by the state auditor. Occupational or professional boards would continue to be audited every two years, but boards with annual receipts under a specified threshold could instead file an annual report, and the state auditor could charge up to $90 per hour to review that report. The bill further clarifies that the auditor must refer public records requests for submitted audit materials back to the submitting entity for response.
SB2251 amends sections of the North Dakota Century Code in Chapter 54-10 to expand and clarify the state auditor’s audit administration framework, including audit frequency, cost recovery, contracting, and reporting. It affects state agencies, higher education institutions, political subdivisions, occupational and professional boards, and entities receiving federal funds or nongeneral fund moneys. The bill also changes how audit costs are allocated and paid, including restrictions on charging higher education entities and new rules for progress payments and annual-report review fees.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the Senate 46-0 and the House 90-0, with only a small number of absences in each chamber. No committee transcript was provided, but the unanimous votes suggest general agreement that the bill was a technical or administrative update to audit procedures rather than a major policy dispute.
No recorded floor or committee opposition is available in the provided materials, and the final votes were unanimous. The most likely areas of potential concern are the bill’s audit-cost provisions, including when agencies may be charged for audits or private contractor work, the requirement that political subdivisions retain part of progress payments, and the new annual-report fee for smaller occupational or professional boards. Another possible point of sensitivity is the bill’s clarification that audit-related public records requests are to be referred to the submitting entity, which may affect access and response procedures, but no explicit opposition is shown in the record provided.