Legislature(2001 - 2002)
03/18/2002 12:34 PM House BUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE BUDGET AND AUDIT
March 18, 2002
12:34 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gene Therriault, Chair
Senator Jerry Ward
Representative Hugh Fate, Vice Chair
Representative Eldon Mulder
Representative John Harris
Representative Ken Lancaster
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Randy Phillips
Senator Dave Donley
Senator Gary Wilken, alternate
Representative Reggie Joule
Representative John Davies, alternate
Representative William K. "Bill" Williams, alternate
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Senator John Torgerson
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
EXECUTIVE SESSION
AUDIT REPORTS
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
WITNESS REGISTER
PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor
Division of Legislative Audit
Alaska State Legislature
333 Willoughby Avenue
P.O. Box 113300
Juneau, Alaska 99811-3300
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke on behalf of the Division of
Legislative Audit.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 02-2, SIDE A
Number 0001
CHAIR GENE THERRIAULT called the Joint Committee on Legislative
Budget and Audit to order at 12:34 p.m. Members present at the
call to order were Representatives Lancaster, Mulder, Harris,
and Fate, and Senators Ward and Therriault.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Number 0103
REPRESENTATIVE FATE moved to approve the minutes from the
January 24, 2002, meeting. There being no objection, the
minutes were approved as read.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Number 0119
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to move to executive session
for the purpose of discussing confidential audit reports under
AS 24.20.301. There being no objection, the committee went into
executive session at 12:36 p.m.
Number 0148
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to bring the committee back
into regular, open session. There being no objection, the
committee returned to regular session.
AUDIT REPORTS
Number 0163
REPRESENTATIVE FATE moved that the following preliminary audits
be released to the agencies for response: The Department of
Labor & Workforce Development, State Training and Employment
Program, with an expedited response period; and Department of
Labor & Workforce Development, Northstar Unit Alaska Hire and
Contracting. There being no objection, the preliminary audits
were released to the departments for response.
Number 0243
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to release the Alaska Court
System, Judicial Salaries Review audit to the public. There
being no objection, the final audit was released to the public.
Number 0253
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to approve the audit requests
for the Department of Health and Social Services, Division of
Family and Youth Services, Selected Travel Issues; and the
Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Family and
Youth Services, Juvenile Justice Selected Managerial Issues.
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked Pat Davidson if she had worked with
Representatives Chenault and Dyson on the audit requests.
Number 0320
PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative
Audit, Alaska State Legislature, testified before the committee.
She said she had worked with the Representatives on those
requests.
CHAIR THERRIAULT said it was important to make sure the audits
"dovetail" with an ongoing federal audit.
MS. DAVIDSON said Representative Dyson's request had one or two
issues that dovetail, but the federal review might already have
been completed; therefore, the division may be able to build on
that.
Number 0358
REPRESENTATIVE FATE asked if there was any way to get an update
[on the federal audit]. He said it was entered into as an audit
but it turned into a fact-finding mission. He said there were
specific concerns that brought the request for the audit in the
first place. He said that if those concerns were not being
corroborated, then it would be prudent to "know now," instead of
continuing the process with another request.
MS. DAVIDSON stated that in the last meeting there was an
update. To date, there had not been the second stakeholder
meeting. She said the second stakeholder meeting was on
schedule for the end of March or the following month. The
review team's training was ongoing, and it was still scheduled
"to get into it in June." Ms. Davidson said the division's
staff would be a part of that team, and the committee would be
notified if its issues were not being covered.
Number 0544
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked if there were any objections to the
motion to adopt those requests. There being no objection, they
were added to the queue of audits to commence.
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
CHAIR THERRIAULT said a teleconference was held for the School
Cost Study on January 25. It took place between the contractors
and the working group of Pat Davidson, David Teal,
Representative Fate, Eddy Jeans, and himself [Senator
Therriault]. He said the report revealed that [the contractors]
were continuing to work with the district business officers
group on fine-tuning the survey that was to be sent out. He
said that they were nearly ready to distribute that. A
quarterly report from the contractors would be distributed to
the committee members as soon it was received.
CHAIR THERRIAULT said he had received a memo from Senator
Hoffman expressing concern over the draft survey. He said
Senator Hoffman's was a very early copy. He pointed out that
the contractor was having problems with the Department of Labor
& Workforce Development over one of the sources of data, but a
suggestion from Mr. Teal had revealed another source of data
that could be relied upon.
CHAIR THERRIAULT said one of the duties of the Joint Legislative
Budget and Audit Committee is to review requests for waivers
from the Department of Education and Early Development
concerning its administrative expenses. He said he'd received a
large number of the requests in the previous year, but many came
in shortly before the board met and approved them, and some were
not received until after the board took action. Chair
Therriault pointed out that this was in violation of statutory
language. He said he'd written a memo to the House and Senate
Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committees in
order to determine whether the statutes need to be modified, or
to perhaps find out why the department had not been timelier in
providing the requests.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the Joint
Committee on Legislative Budget and Audit meeting was adjourned
at 1:10 p.m.
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