Legislature(2015 - 2016)Anch LIO Auditorium
05/07/2015 10:00 AM House LEGISLATIVE BUDGET & AUDIT
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Approval of Minutes | |
| Special Audit Requests | |
| Executive Session | |
| Other Committee Business | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATIVE BUDGET AND AUDIT COMMITTEE
Anchorage, Alaska
May 7, 2015
10:03 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Mike Hawker, Chair
Representative Kurt Olson
Representative Lance Pruitt
Representative Sam Kito
Senator Anna MacKinnon, Vice Chair
Senator Cathy Giessel
Senator Bert Stedman
Senator Click Bishop
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Steve Thompson
Representative Mark Neuman (alternate)
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Pete Kelly (alternate)
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Lynn Gattis
Representative Tammie Wilson
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
SPECIAL AUDIT REQUESTS
EXECUTIVE SESSION
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
KRISTIN CURTIS
Legislative Auditor
Division of Legislative Audit
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions during the special audit
requests.
SENATOR BERTA GARDNER
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a request for an audit of the
Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Lab under the Department of
Public Safety.
ACTION NARRATIVE
10:03:23 AM
CHAIR MIKE HAWKER called the Legislative Budget and Audit
Committee meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. Representatives
Hawker, Pruitt, Olson, and Kito and Senators MacKinnon, Giessel,
and Bishop were present at the call to order. Senator Stedman
arrived as the meeting was in progress. Also in attendance were
Representatives Gattis and Wilson.
^Approval of Minutes
Approval of Minutes
10:04:56 AM
CHAIR HAWKER announced that the first order of business would be
the approval of the minutes.
10:05:36 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON made a motion to approve the minutes of March
30, 2015. There being no objection, the minutes from the
meeting of March 30, 2015 were approved.
^Special Audit Requests
Special Audit Requests
10:06:05 AM
CHAIR HAWKER announced that the next order of business would be
to review three special audit requests.
10:06:46 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON directed attention to a memo dated March 27,
2015, in which she outlined a request for an audit of the
Commercial Passenger Vessel (CPV) tax under the Department of
Revenue. [Included in members' packets]. She reported that
there was concern that this CPV tax was not being used for its
declared purpose. She said that there had been assertions that
some Southeast communities were stockpiling these CPV funds, and
that some of the money was being spent inappropriately on
projects that were inconsistent with the federal mandate for use
of these funds. She suggested that the Legislative Auditor
review whether the use of these dollars was in an appropriate
manner.
10:08:12 AM
CHAIR HAWKER asked Ms. Curtis if she had worked with the
requestor of this audit, and whether she was comfortable with
the scope of the audit as it was defined in this document.
KRISTIN CURTIS, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative
Audit, Alaska State Legislature, replied "yes."
10:08:30 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON explained that the head [CPV] tax directed $8
to the Port of Juneau, $7 to the Port of Ketchikan, and $5 to
each of five additional communities. She relayed that it had
been suggested that some of the communities were holding the
funds for investment in large, future projects or had pledged
the funding for bonds. She stated that there were many other
ports of call for cruise ships throughout Alaska that had less
than desirable cruise ship passenger facilities. She declared
that these dollars were specific and should be used, possibly,
in a broader manner than currently proposed in Alaska statute.
SENATOR MACKINNON moved to approve her request for an audit of
the Commercial Passenger Vessel Tax under the Department of
Revenue. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
10:09:57 AM
CHAIR HAWKER announced that the next order of business would be
an audit request by Senator Giessel for the Board of Game,
Alaska Department of Fish & Game, and local advisory committees.
He shared his support for the request as he opined that it had
been brought to both of their attentions by a constituent.
10:10:08 AM
SENATOR GIESSEL directed attention to a memo to the committee
dated April 27, 2015, in which she outlined a request for an
audit of the Board of Game and the Local Advisory Committees
under the Alaska Department of Fish & Game [Included in members'
packets]. She explained the process, noting that the Board of
Game regulated hunting and the use of game resources, and that
local advisory committees also had some purview over these
regulations, the timing of the hunts, and the permitting. She
shared that her office had received concerns for the regulatory
outcomes and the decision making process. She requested an
audit of the decision making process by the Board of Game from
2010 to the present. She listed the specific audit objectives,
which included: are the Board of Game (BOG) decisions being
made in compliance with state law and legislative intent; are
the advisory committee recommendations rooted in Alaska
Department of Fish & Game (ADFG) research, as this should
include recommendations concerning intensive management actions
as supported by ADFG scientific data. If recommendations do not
align with the scientific data, what is the reason for this
regulatory misalignment? She asked if the BOG, advisory
committees, and ADFG consistently follow established procedures
and do the participants have a clear and accurate understanding
of their respective roles. She questioned whether there was any
pre-vetting of proposals, and was this effective and efficient.
She queried if these BOG decisions were being upheld by the
courts. She asked if the ADFG data, research, and
recommendations for intensive management were available to the
advisory committees before their recommendations were necessary.
She requested to know how the entities were working together.
10:12:30 AM
MS. CURTIS, in response to Chair Hawker, said that she had
worked with the audit requestor when drafting the request and
she was comfortable with the objectives of the audit.
10:12:57 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON moved to approve Senator Giessel's request for
an audit of the Board of Game and Local Advisory Committees
under the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. There being no
objection, it was so ordered.
10:13:25 AM
CHAIR HAWKER announced that the next order of business would be
an audit request by Senator Gardner.
SENATOR BERTA GARDNER, Alaska State Legislature, directed
attention to a letter to the committee dated March 26, 2015, in
which she outlined a request for an audit of the Alaska
Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (ASCDL) [Included in
members' packets]. She referenced recent national reports for
backlogs of rape kits which had not been tested. She noted that
there had been a sustained effort to catch up with this backlog
in some areas, which had led to identification of rape suspects
who had committed other rapes. She pointed out that, as Alaska
had "appalling statistics about rape and sexual assault," she
had questioned whether the state also had a backlog of rape kit
tests. She reported that a legislative research request with a
series of questions had been submitted, which included a request
for the number of rape kits typically untested each year, an
estimate for the percentage of rape kits tested, were there
statutory, regulatory, or police time frames for mandating
testing schedules, and were there examples of rape kits that
were not tested which had resulted in more hardship or
additional rapes. She reported that these responses had all
been "unknown, unknown, unknown," which she declared was a
shock. She noted that she had then introduced SB 54, which
required the Department of Public Safety to conduct an audit on
all of the untested sexual assault rape kits that may be in
their position, as well as the kits in possession of the ASCDL.
She said that, shortly after introduction of SB 54, there was a
newspaper story about the proposed bill, and her office then
began to receive calls from employees and former employees of
the ASCDL. She relayed that there were claims of fear for
losing national accreditation because of management failure to
maintain a proper chain of custody with evidence and failure to
adhere to standards for storage of evidence. She shared that
other long term employee technicians reportedly left for similar
reasons. She relayed that a high level supervisor employed by
DPS had worked for various iterations of the ASCDL, but had been
forced out for continual complaints to management for the
unkempt nature of the crime lab operation. Another person had
stated they were offended by the mismanagement of the lab,
stating that this was "the biggest miscarriage of justice the
state had ever seen."
CHAIR HAWKER clarified that these were allegations, and not
statements of fact.
SENATOR GARDNER expressed her agreement, but noted that,
cumulatively, these raised questions. She reported that during
that time there had also been an ASCDL employee found guilty of
felony theft of drugs and evidence tampering over four years.
She acknowledged that the statements were hearsay, but she did
not want to disregard all of them. She also expressed questions
for the annual budget to the ASCDL, and whether or not the new
lab allowed for more in-house testing and better results. She
had heard that there were now actually fewer resources for
evidence testing, with a lot of the testing being sent out of
state.
CHAIR HAWKER pointed out that the specific audit objectives were
listed on the aforementioned letter.
10:18:21 AM
MS. CURTIS, in response to Chair Hawker, said that she had
worked with the audit requestor when drafting the request, her
staff had visited the ASCDL and done some informal inquiries,
and she was comfortable with the objectives of the audit.
10:19:06 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON moved to approve Senator Gardner's request for
an audit of the Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Lab under the
Department of Public Safety. There being no objection, it was
so ordered.
10:19:35 AM
CHAIR HAWKER asked for an update on the current status of the
audits and the time frame for a response to these three audit
requests.
MS. CURTIS reported that there were currently three audits in
the queue, which she surmised had not yet started. She relayed
that about seven had already begun and would be released this
year. She noted that the [M/V] Tustumena audit was being held
pending the litigation, and the audit of the Alaska Regional
Development Organizations (ARDORS) had been held as they had
been de-funded, and then re-funded in Fiscal Year 2015. She
reported that her division would hold this for one year, and
would then begin in the fall if it was funded again. She
mentioned that the audit of the University of Alaska and the
State of Alaska travel offices had just started. She expressed
anticipation that one of these audits should be started by mid-
summer.
MS. CURTIS, in response, said that completion depended on the
nature of the topic, offering her belief that the ASCDL could be
time consuming as the questions were fairly complex. She opined
that the CPV [tax] audit should be quick, as there was already a
reporting process for gathering the information which could be
built upon. She suggested that the Board of Game audit could
take at least one year.
^Executive Session
Executive Session
10:22:34 AM
CHAIR HAWKER announced that the next order of business would be
to move into Executive Session.
SENATOR MACKINNON made a motion to move to executive session
under Uniform Rule 22 for the purpose of discussing confidential
audit reports and tariff system data under AS 24.20.301. There
being no objection, the committee went into executive session at
10:23 a.m.
10:23:06 AM
MS. CURTIS asked if the audit staff could stay on during the
executive session.
CHAIR HAWKER expressed his agreement.
10:23:44 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 10:23 a.m. to 11:31 a.m.
11:31:28 AM
CHAIR HAWKER brought the committee back to order at 11:31 a.m.
Representatives Kito, Pruitt, Olson, and Hawker and Senators
MacKinnon and Giessel were present at the call to order.
11:32:23 AM
The committee took a brief at-ease.
11:34:07 AM
SENATOR MACKINNON made a motion for the preliminary audits for
the Alaska Public Offices Commission and the Alaska Commission
on Aging to be released to the appropriate agencies for
response. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
SENATOR MACKINNON made a motion for the RCA Tariff System Data
memo to be released to the public. There being no objection, it
was so ordered.
^Other Committee Business
Other Committee Business
11:34:27 AM
CHAIR HAWKER asked if there was any other committee business.
11:34:40 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee meeting was adjourned at
11:34 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| LBA_Meeting Packet_7May15.pdf |
JBUD 5/7/2015 10:00:00 AM |