The authority and responsibilities of the Legislative Audit Bureau and state auditor, eliminating certain expired audit requirements, and requiring confidentiality during investigations of reports made to the state fraud, waste, and mismanagement hotline. (FE)

2. Current law also requires LAB to perform, among other audits, (a) an annual financial audit of the State Fair Park Board and certain private entities with which that board may contract; (b) an annual financial audit of certain Department of Health Services grants; (c) a biennial financial audit of the central accounting records of the Department of Administration (DOA); (d) a biennial financial audit of the Medical College of Wisconsin's expenditures of state moneys; (e) a biennial financial audit of the Higher Education Aids Board's contract for dental education;

(f) a biennial performance evaluation audit of the Division of Gaming in DOA; and (g) a biennial performance evaluation audit of the state lottery.

The bill requires LAB to perform all of those audits at the discretion of the state auditor or as JLAC directs, not on an annual or biennial basis. The bill also adds an annual financial audit of the University of Wisconsin System.

3. The bill eliminates a number of LAB audits under current law, including (a) an annual financial audit of the Division of Gaming; (b) a biennial financial audit of cash on hand and securities deposited in the state treasury or otherwise accounted for by the secretary of administration; (c) a biennial financial audit of DOA's books compared to moneys in the vaults of the state treasury or other state depositories;

(d) a financial audit of moneys transferred from a school district's capital improvement fund; (e) unspecified audits to be performed at the direction of the Government Accountability Board; and (f) several one-time performance evaluation and financial audits that have expired or been completed.

4. Current law requires LAB to monitor state agencies' purchases and report to JLAC at least once every five years concerning the extent to which agency purchases were of materials, supplies, or equipment manufactured outside of the United States. The bill replaces that five-year reporting requirement with the requirement that LAB make such a report to JLAC at the state auditor's discretion or as JLAC directs.

5. Current law requires LAB to maintain a toll-free hotline to receive reports of fraud, waste, and mismanagement in state government. LAB must relay those reports to an LAB employee or an appropriate state agency for investigation. LAB's records concerning the identity of a person who makes a report to the hotline are confidential. Under the bill, LAB must also keep such a report and investigation, including any information arising from the investigation, confidential while the investigation is pending, except as necessary to conduct the investigation.

6. Finally, under current law, certain officials and state agencies may have access to Wisconsin taxpayers' tax records maintained by the Department of Revenue. The bill authorizes LAB and its employees to have access to those tax records to the extent necessary to carry out LAB's duties under the law.