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The House Committee on Government Reform held an interim hearing on the topic of state agency inspectors general. (An inspector general office serves as an internal investigating division within a state agency designed to check into allegations of fraud and abuse.)
The education community has followed with interest the media stories relating to the office of inspector general within the Texas Education Agency (TEA), from its creation primarily to ensure TAKS compliance, through a report expressing concern over TEA’s contracting process, to the firing of two inspectors only a few weeks ago.
One of those former employees told the media that he was fired for complaining about not being allowed to fulfill his job responsibilities, charging specifically that the investigating division was prohibited from looking into alleged kickbacks to a superintendent.
The Government Reform hearing was on the broader topic of whether there should be a centralized statewide office of investigator general. The two fired inspectors and employees from other state agencies testified to the need for increased independence from the “host” agency, as currently the investigating division depends on that agency for funding and often reports to the agency head.
Also of interest:
During the course of the hearing the state auditor’s office, which currently provides financial audit opinions for TRS and ERS, was asked by Chairman Bill Callegari and Rep. Leo Berman to look into whether there is sufficient transparency in the contracting processes in those agencies.
The committee discussed whether the state auditor should be able to review fiscal notes on proposed legislation. Currently, each bill receiving a committee hearing must have a fiscal note prepared by the Legislative Budget Board estimating the cost of the proposal. That note can make or break a proposal, especially in lean budget years, and legislators (and TCTA) have at times been concerned about estimated costs that far exceed expectations. There is no mechanism at this time to audit those fiscal notes, but committee member Rep. David Leibowitz suggested random after-the-fact audits on successful legislation to determine whether the actual costs bore any resemblance to the original estimate.
TCTA will continue to monitor the committee’s work; an interim report and recommendations will be issued prior to the start of the 2009 legislative session.
Posted: 07/18/08
