Legislature(2001 - 2002)
05/10/2002 06:20 PM Senate BUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE BUDGET AND AUDIT
May 10, 2002
6:20 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Randy Phillips
Senator Gene Therriault, Chair
Representative Hugh Fate, Vice Chair
Representative Eldon Mulder
Representative John Harris
Representative Ken Lancaster
Representative William K. "Bill" Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Jerry Ward
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Dave Donley
Senator Gary Wilken, alternate
Representative Reggie Joule
Representative John Davies, alternate
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
EXECUTIVE SESSION
AUDIT REPORTS
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
WITNESS REGISTER
PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor
Division of Legislative Audit
Alaska State Legislature
333 Willoughby Avenue
PO Box 113300
Juneau, Alaska 99811-3300
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke on behalf of the Division of
Legislative Audit.
HEATHER BRAKES, Staff
to Senator Gene Therriault
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 121
Juneau, Alaska 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: As committee aide, testified on an audit
request made by Representative Joe Green, Alaska State
Legislature.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 02-4, SIDE A
Number 0001
CHAIR GENE THERRIAULT called the Joint Committee on Legislative
Budget and Audit at 6:20 p.m. Members present at the call to
order were Representatives Fate, Mulder, Harris, Lancaster, and
Williams, and Senators Phillips and Therriault.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Number 0046
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 6:21 p.m.
CHAIR THERRIAULT brought the committee back to order at 6:40
p.m.
[The committee went back into regular session.]
AUDIT REPORTS
Number 0120
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to release the final audit for
the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Northstar
Unit Alaskan-Hire and Contracting. There being no objection,
the final audit was released to the public.
Number 0142
REPRESENTATIVE FATE made a motion to release the following
preliminary audits to the agencies for response: the Department
of Transportation and Public Facilities, Ted Stevens
International Airport Terminal Improvements; and the Department
of Transportation and Public Facilities, Ted Stevens
International Airport Seismic Design Dispute.
Number 0200
PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative
Audit, Alaska State Legislature, suggested the committee might
want to authorize the division to release a report on the
seismic dispute to the Municipality of Anchorage in order for
the division to get the municipality's input for incorporation
into the audit.
Number 0223
REPRESENTATIVE FATE also moved to release [the audit for the
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Ted Stevens
International Airport Seismic Design Dispute, to the
Municipality of Anchorage].
Number 0237
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked if there was objection to either motion.
There being no objection, the audits were released to their
respective entities.
CHAIR THERRIAULT said the committee had a large number of audits
to approve. He asked if all of the requests required an audit
instead of other means.
MS. DAVIDSON said she could not make a preliminary assessment on
the scope or time required for the request from Representative
Green concerning the Department of Natural Resources, Division
of Forestry.
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked if she was confident that it could not be
handled quickly.
MS. DAVIDSON said the last sentence of the request makes her
pause. She quoted it as saying, "There is some additional
information regarding this issue that I'd like to discuss with
you in more detail." She said she did not know where that would
go.
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked Heather Brakes about her conversation
[with the staff in Representative Green's office] about the
sentence Ms. Davidson had mentioned.
Number 0460
HEATHER BRAKES, Staff to Senator Gene Therriault, Alaska State
Legislature, speaking as the committee aide for the Joint
Committee on Legislative Budget and Audit, said they understood
it might not be approved.
Number 0500
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked approximately how many audits there were
for the committee to deal with.
MS. DAVIDSON told the committee there wasn't an extensive
backlog. The audits that have been requested are significant in
size, however. She gave the examples of a Medicaid audit and
two for Division of Family and Youth Services, among others.
She also said the state has adopted new accounting standards
that would increase the workload for the division.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked if the Medicaid audit is "a program audit
or a number-crunching audit."
MS. DAVIDSON said it is a little of both. It asks about
internal controls, but also gets down to cost containment
issues.
SENATOR PHILLIPS reminded Ms. Davidson that there is $200,000 in
the current budget for a "Medicaid socioeconomic-whatever study"
and suggested she might want to "tie that in with that, rather
than operate in a vacuum."
CHAIR THERRIAULT stated that he would prefer to hold off on
Representative Green's audit request until there is time to
discuss it more. He asked Ms. Davidson how she determines the
order in which to take up audits when she has several.
Number 0820
MS. DAVIDSON told the committee she looks to see where the audit
needs to be conducted - statutory audits come first - and then
determines what office will perform the audit. She said she
tries to match the proper auditor with the particular audit.
Number 0958
REPRESENTATIVE FATE moved that the committee approve the
following audit requests: Departments of Administration, Public
Safety, and Military and Veterans' Affairs, Alaska Land Mobile
Radio Project; Department of [Community] and Economic
Development, Commercial Fishing Revolving Loan Fund; Department
of Health and Social Services, Division of Alcohol and Drug
Abuse; Department of Corrections, Administration Hiring
Discrimination; and Department of Community and Economic
Development, Game Guiding Activities. There being no objection,
the audit requests were approved.
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
CHAIR THERRIAULT reminded members to encourage those in their
respective districts who had not yet submitted their Education
Cost Study questionnaires.
Number 1151
REPRESENTATIVE MULDER told the committee the state's medical
plan is approximately 26 years old, and that there would be
funding for a new one; the funds would come through the Joint
Committee on Legislative Budget and Audit.
CHAIR THERRIAULT asked what the intent is behind that course of
action.
REPRESENTATIVE MULDER answered that the intent is a state health
plan that oversees and guides the practices of [certificates of
need].
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the Joint
Committee on Legislative Budget and Audit meeting was adjourned
at 6:54 p.m.
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