Legislature(2019 - 2020)ADAMS ROOM 519
03/07/2019 06:00 PM Senate LEGISLATIVE BUDGET & AUDIT
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Election of Chair | |
| Election of Vice Chair | |
| Approval of Minutes | |
| Report from David Teal | |
| Report from Kris Curtis | |
| Executive Session | |
| 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
March 7, 2019
6:07 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Chris Tuck, Chair
Representative Neal Foster
Representative Ivy Spohnholz
Representative Jennifer Johnston (alternate)
Senator Click Bishop, Vice Chair
Senator Bert Stedman
Senator Natasha von Imhof
Senator Cathy Giessel
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Andy Josephson
Representative Mark Neuman
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Peter Micciche (alternate)
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative DeLena Johnson
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
ELECTION OF CHAIR
ELECTION OF VICE CHAIR
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
REPORT FROM DAVID TEAL, LEGISLATIVE FINANCE DIVISION
REPORT FROM KRIS CURTIS, LEGISLATIVE AUDIT DIVISION
EXECUTIVE SESSION
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
DAVID TEAL, Legislative Fiscal Analyst
Legislative Finance Division
Legislative Agencies and Offices
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information to the Legislative
Budget and Audit Committee on the role of the Legislative
Finance Division.
KRIS CURTIS
Legislative Auditor
Legislative Audit Division
Legislative Agencies and Offices
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information to the Legislative
Budget and Audit Committee on the role of the Legislative Audit
Division.
ACTION NARRATIVE
6:07:56 PM
CHAIR BERT STEDMAN called the Legislative Budget and Audit
Committee meeting to order at 6:07 p.m. Representatives Tuck,
Foster, and Johnston (alternate) and Senators Stedman, Giessel,
and Bishop were present at the call to order. Representative
Spohnholz and Senator von Imhof arrived as the meeting was in
progress. Also in attendance was Representative Johnson.
^Election of Chair
Election of Chair
6:08:29 PM
CHAIR STEDMAN announced that the first order of business would
be nominations for the chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit
Committee.
6:08:44 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FOSTER nominated Representative Chris Tuck as
chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee for the 31st
Alaska State Legislature, and he asked that nominations be
closed. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
^Election of Vice Chair
Election of Vice Chair
6:09:03 PM
CHAIR TUCK announced that the next order of business would be
nominations for the vice chair of the Legislative Budget and
Audit Committee.
6:09:16 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN nominated Senator Click Bishop as vice chair of
the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee for the 31st Alaska
State Legislature, and he asked that nominations be closed.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
6:09:52 PM
CHAIR TUCK offered some opening remarks which explained the
lateness for the organization of the committee. He explained
the role of alternate members to the committee, which included
participation when necessary for the committee to meet a quorum
and pointed out that this was the only time an alternate member
would be allowed to vote. He clarified that all members were
invited to attend any meeting of the committee.
^Approval of Minutes
Approval of Minutes
6:10:58 PM
CHAIR TUCK announced that the next order of business would be
approval of the minutes.
6:11:05 PM
SENATOR BISHOP made a motion to approve the minutes of the
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee of January 14, 2019.
There being no objection, the minutes from the meeting of
January 14, 2019 were approved.
^Report from David Teal
Report from David Teal, Legislative Finance Division
6:11:25 PM
CHAIR TUCK announced that the next order of business would be a
presentation from David Teal, Legislative Fiscal Analyst. He
asked that Mr. Teal explain the interaction between the
Legislative Finance Division and the committee.
6:11:58 PM
DAVID TEAL, Legislative Fiscal Analyst, Legislative Finance
Division, Legislative Agencies and Offices, introduced himself
as the Director of the Legislative Finance Division and noted
that the division reported to the Legislative Budget and Audit
Committee, as well as "90 percent of our time supporting the
finance committees [House Finance Committee and Senate Finance
Committee] in putting the budget together." He shared that the
Division's primary interaction with the Legislative Budget and
Audit Committee would be for the "revised programs -
legislative" (RPLs) which he described as requests by the
executive branch to receive and spend money which had not been
anticipated. He acknowledged that this money needed to be
appropriated. He explained that the RPLs were brought to the
committee for review. He shared an example of a previous RPL
for Medicaid Expansion, which, although it had not been approved
by the committee, the governor had gone ahead and, after 45
days, approved the RPL. He pointed out that regardless of the
action of the committee, the governor could implement the
request after 45 days had elapsed. Approval of an RPL by the
committee eliminated the necessity for the governor to wait the
45 days for expenditure. He explained the process for an RPL:
it was sent to the Legislative Finance Division about two weeks
prior to a scheduled Legislative Budget and Audit Committee
meeting; the Division then reviewed the RPL and added comments
and recommendations, in conjunction with the staff to the
committee, to the body of the RPL. He noted that, if there were
any objections or questions which the Office of Management &
Budget (OMB) had difficulty answering, the RPL was typically
withdrawn. He stated that once an RPL was provided to the
committee, it had usually "passed muster," was posted on the
Division website and the committee staff was notified. The
committee staff would then contact the committee members and the
RPL was reviewed and discussed with the Division at the next
meeting.
^Report from Kris Curtis
Report from Kris Curtis, Legislative Audit Division
6:15:25 PM
CHAIR TUCK announced that the next of business would be a
presentation from Kris Curtis, Legislative Auditor. He asked
that Ms. Curtis explain the interactions between the committee
and the Legislative Audit Division.
6:15:35 PM
KRIS CURTIS, Legislative Auditor, Legislative Audit Division,
Legislative Agencies and Offices, explained her role as the
auditor, noting that she had been with the division for more
than 25 years, and in her current role for more than 7 years.
She introduced other members of her staff. She directed
attention to a memo [Included in members' packets] which
outlined the responsibilities of the Legislative Budget and
Audit Committee, explaining that the main function of the
committee was to provide the Alaska State Legislature with
fiscal analysis, budget reviews, and audits. She relayed that
statutes gave the committee several powers, including the broad
power to review revenue projections, state agency appropriation
requests and expenditure of state funds, and the fiscal policy
and procedures of the state government. She declared that
statutes also gave the committee oversight responsibilities,
and, in some instances, designated the committee as the primary
representative of the legislature. She pointed out that the
aforementioned memo summarized some of the lesser known powers
and responsibilities and noted that over the years the committee
had exercised these powers to different degrees. She introduced
the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee handbook [Included in
members' packets] which detailed the authorizing statutes for
the committee and identified the two permanent staff agencies,
the Legislative Audit Division and the Legislative Finance
Division. She directed attention to page 39 of the handbook
which listed the policies and procedures, as well as the known
dates of adoption for each. She reported that the procedures
guided how the committee would do its business and included the
release of an audit and the approval of an audit request, as
well as contracts and travel. She discussed the confidential
report release procedures outlined on page 47 of the handbook.
She emphasized that statutes made the audit process confidential
and that it was important for committee members and staff to
take the necessary precautions to prevent the premature release
of audit information before the committee had the opportunity
for review and official release. She explained the two-step
process for release of the reports. First, it was brought to
the committee as a preliminary audit and distributed during the
executive session for discussion of the report conclusions and
recommendations. When the committee comes out of executive
session, it would typically vote whether to release the
preliminary audit back to an agency for its formal comments.
The audit would remain confidential during the preliminary audit
phase and any communications between the Legislative Auditor and
the auditee were confidential. The formal comments by the
auditee were attached to the preliminary audit and returned to
the committee for consideration as a final audit. She stated
that a final audit would be sent to committee members ahead of a
committee meeting and would be delivered to the member's office
in a sealed envelope, marked "confidential," and printed on blue
paper in order to distinguish this confidential audit from other
documents. She added that it would be necessary for a staff
member to sign for receipt of the audit.
6:20:11 PM
MS. CURTIS reported on the status of the current audits. She
directed attention to the matrix of current audits [Included in
members' packets]. She relayed that there were 6 special
audits, 2 federal financial audits, and 3 sunset audits. She
noted that the oldest performance audit was from 2013 regarding
the overhaul and refurbishment of the Tustumena [ferry of the
Alaska Marine Highway System], which had been approved and put
on hold pending settlement of the litigation between the State
of Alaska and the vendor. She reported that, as the litigation
had been completed, she would evaluate the settlement, report
back to the committee with a current status for the audit, and
ask for direction from the committee for whether to go forward
or terminate the request. She directed attention to the
Medicaid and CHIP [Children's Health Insurance Program]
eligibility audit. She explained that, as this audit required
re-determination of eligibility for a sample of Medicaid and
CHIP beneficiaries, it would be necessary to hire a consultant
and she would return to the committee with a request for
approval of the procurement contract. She added that a
consultant would also be hired to test/review the IT
[information technology] controls over the Department of Health
and Social Services (DHSS) new Medicaid eligibility system,
ARIES [Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services].
She noted that the contractor would also review the edits to the
Medicaid system, to ensure effective operation. She pointed to
the December 2016 Medicaid and CHIP travel cost audit, noting
that it was included in the members' packets. She directed
attention to the first sentence under the first bullet at the
bottom of page 1 and read: "identify Medicaid and CHIP travel
expenditures from fiscal year 2014 (FY 14) through December 2016
and report the top 15 travel providers with the highest
expenditures for FY 16." She asked that the committee consider
an amendment to this first sentence which would allow review of
information through December 2018 with a report to include FY 18
to share more current, accurate, helpful information.
6:23:02 PM
SENATOR BISHOP moved that the first bullet in the audit request
dated December 2, 2016, related to Medicaid and CHIP travel
costs, be amended to replace December 2016 with December 2018
and [replace] FY 16 with FY 18. There being no objection, it
was so approved.
^Executive Session
Executive Session
6:23:46 PM
CHAIR TUCK announced that the next of business would be to move
into Executive Session.
6:23:55 PM
SENATOR BISHOP made a motion to move to executive session under
Uniform Rule 22 of the Alaska Legislature for purpose of
receiving legal guidance regarding the auditor's opinion on the
FY 18 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and discuss
the FY 18 Statewide Single Audit. There being no objection, the
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee went into executive
session at 6:24 p.m.
6:24:44 PM
The committee took an at-ease from 6:24 p.m. to 7:54 p.m.
7:54:39 PM
CHAIR TUCK brought the committee back to order at 7:54 p.m.
7:54:54 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee meeting was adjourned at
7:54 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| audit status.pdf |
JBUD 3/7/2019 6:00:00 PM |
|
| Meeting 19-03-07 Agenda Amended.pdf |
JBUD 3/7/2019 6:00:00 PM |
|
| 30089 MCHIP Travel Audit Request.pdf |
JBUD 3/7/2019 6:00:00 PM |
|
| 2019 LBAC Handbook.pdf |
JBUD 3/7/2019 6:00:00 PM |