Financial Audit Model Reform
ANGUS MACIVER
Legislative Auditor & Division Director
406.444.3122
Early in 2022, the Legislative Audit Committee contracted with a consultant on modernizing the overall approach to auditing the state’s accounting records. The last notable change to the state’s financial audit model occurred in 1985, in conjunction with implementation of the federal Single Audit Act of 1984. Since that time, the composition and complexity of the state’s financial activity, and associated statutory and regulatory requirements, changed significantly. Today’s risks are not the same as the risks that existed in 1985.
In October 2022, we proposed a new risk-based audit model involving a different type of agency oversight. House Bill 132 became effective April 19, 2023, paving the way for the new model. It will include annual, rather than biennial, audits of federal programs (Single Audit). It will also include a comprehensive analysis of state operations, new types of interaction with agency personnel, identification of agencies or programs to audit based on identified risk factors, and potentially new types of audit services. This will be a multi-year project requiring involvement of many parties at both the state and national level.
Project Status Updates occur during regularly scheduled Legislative Audit Committee Hearings. To browse the status materials, clink on the links below:
- November 2024 Single Audit: Requirements Processes, and Opportunities by LAD
- September 2024 Method of Follow-up For Prior Audit Recommendations
- June 2024 Continued Scope Reductions
- January 2024 Leg Branch & Consumer Counsel Risk-Based Audit Proposal
- January 2024 Scope Reductions for Selected State Agencies
- November 2023 All Agency Meeting Summary- Recorded Meeting
- November 2023 LAD Transition to the New Model - Q&A
- October 2023 Proposed Scope of Work & Other Parties Involved
- June 2023 Consumer Counsel & Leg Branch Audit Proposal
- June 2023 Financial Audit Model Reform Status Update
- November 2022 Bill Draft Modify Timing of Audits
- Timeline of Potential Processes and Events - 2025 & 2027 Biennia
- December 2022 Risk Based Audit Approach
- October 2022 Implementation of Reforms
- September 2022 Montana State Fund Contract Audit Proposal
- September 2022 Financial-Compliance Audit Model Analysis
- June 2022 Eide Bailly Consulting Report + LAD Management Response