SB 368

This bill creates a nonpartisan, legislative service agency known as the

"Legislative Office of Inspector General," consisting of 13 inspectors general and

their staff who are assigned to and housed at the headquarters of certain state

agencies. The state agencies are the departments of administration; agriculture,

trade and consumer protection; children and families; corrections; financial

institutions; health services; natural resources; public instruction; revenue; safety

and professional services; transportation; and workforce development; the

Government Accountability Board; and the Board of Regents of the University of

Wisconsin System. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the

Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority are also subject to

inspector general services under the bill. The Joint Committee on Legislative

Organization appoints each inspector general for a six-year term expiring March 1

of the odd-numbered year.

Under the bill, each state agency must provide office space for the inspector

general assigned to the agency and must pay for services provided by the inspectors

general. Inspectors general and their staffs serve in the unclassified service of the

state civil service system. In addition, the Legislative Audit Bureau, upon request,

must provide assistance to inspectors general in the Legislative Office of Inspector

General.

Under the bill, the current offices of inspector general of the departments of

children and families and health services are eliminated.

The bill provides that each inspector general may examine the accounts and

other financial records of the agency to which he or she is assigned, and may review

the performance and program accomplishments of the agency. The bill also provides

that an inspector general must at all times with or without notice have access to any

books, records, or other documents maintained by the agency relating to its

expenditures, revenues, operations, and structure, including specifically any such

books, records, or other documents that are confidential by law.

Under the bill, each inspector general must investigate fraud in state agency

programs or activities and report any finding of fraud to the Department of Justice;

investigate waste, abuse, or inefficiency in state agency programs or activities and

report any finding of waste, abuse, or inefficiency to the appropriate standing

committees in each house of the legislature; and submit an annual report of inspector

general activities to the chief clerk of each house of the legislature. In addition, in

investigating waste, abuse, or inefficiency in state agency programs, an inspector

general must endeavor to identify savings for state agencies that would pay at least

the costs incurred by the inspector general in carrying out the investigations.

Under the bill, the speaker of the assembly and the senate majority leader,

jointly, may direct the inspector general assigned to any state agency to examine the

records or programs of the state agency. The chairpersons of the appropriate