NLPES Question of the Month

June-August 2006:

WHAT WERE YOUR OFFICE'S NUMBER OF PERMANENT, FULL-TIME STAFF IN THE MOST RECENT THREE YEARS (2004-05, 2005-06, and 2006-07) in each of the following areas: (a) program evaluation/performance auditing, (b) financial auditing, and (c) support staff.

Perry Simpson, South Carolina

All our staff is either program auditors or support staff. A separate state agency, the State Auditor, handles financial auditing. Our state fiscal years runs July 1 to June 30.

FY 04-05: 15 total (12 program auditors & 3 support staff)

FY 05-06: 17 total (14 program auditors & 3 support staff)

FY 06-07 (projected): 19 total (16 program auditors & 3 support staff)

Rick Riggs, Kansas

For years, we've had 21 FTE. Last year, the legislature gave us 5 new positions, for a total of 26. We have 2 secretaries, 2 administrators, and everybody else is an audit manager, audit supervisor, or auditor. One of the audit managers oversees the contracting function for the financial and contracted performance audits.

Kerry Fitzgerald, Louisiana

Staffing:

Our Performance Audit Division has had 26 positions for several years but is adding 9 additional positions this year (FY 2006-2007) to help deal with the additional work created by the Hurricane Recovery.

Our Financial Audit Division has had 109 positions for several years (includes 2 secretaries).
We currently have 28 support staff positions (IT support, which does not include IT audit; HR; Accounting; Administration. This number has not changed significantly over the past few years, although some of the positions have changed.

We also have a fraud and abuse investigative unit (called the Compliance Audit Division), which has had 18 positions for several years. We are adding 9 new positions to that unit this year (FY 2006-2007) to deal with Hurricane Recovery issues.

James Barber, Mississippi

The PEER Committee staff had twenty-seven positions for fiscal years 2004 through 2006. (We do not anticipate any changes for fiscal year 2007.) Seventeen of the positions are evaluators who perform program evaluations and performance audits. The remaining ten positions are support positions, including executive managers, legal, information services, accounting, editing, library, and reception.

Gary VanLandingham, Florida

We had 86 authorized positions in 2004-05, 87 in 2005-06, and 92 in 2006-07.

Gerald Schwandt, Michigan

As of October 1 (beginning of the fiscal year) our staffing levels were:

2005: 132 professional staff, 23 support staff

2004: 128 professional staff, 24 support staff

2003: 125 professional staff, 29 support staff

To determine the "program evaluation/performance auditing" staff as compared to the "financial auditing" staff, you first must understand that our staff are not dedicated to either of the classifications. However, we separately track hours spent on the evaluations/audits and our ratio of hours in program evaluations to financial audits for the fiscal years is as follows:

2005: 55% program evaluation, 45% financial audit

2004: 59% program evaluation, 41% financial audit

2003: 55% program evaluation, 45% financial audit

Thus, you can allocate the professional staff by these ratios to arrive at the number of full-time equated staff for program evaluations and financial audits.

John Sylvia, West Virginia

For the three years requested (FY 2005, 2006, 2007), the staffing numbers for our performance audit division has been the same, 17 analysts/managers/director and 2 support staff for a total of 19 staff. Our financial audit division has had staffing for the same years as follows: 31 auditors/managers/director and 3 support staff, for a total of 34 staff.

Ken Levine, Texas Sunset Advisory Commission

Our staffing is 24 professional evaluation staff and five support staff. We do not do financial auditing. The staffing has been level for the past three years.

Keenan Konopaski, Washington

The table below shows our approximate staffing level for the past 2 years, and the upcoming year. The Program Evaluation/Performance Auditing area includes our office’s staff director, as well as the primary audit supervisor.

Joel Alter, Minnesota

Number of permanent FTE, as of July 1 of each July-June fiscal year:

Support services Financial audit Program evaluation Total

FY 05 6 39 14 59

FY 06 6 37 14 57

FY 07 6 38 15 59

Lynn Coulam, Texas State Auditor’s Office

Our staff is not divided between program evaluation/performance auditing/financial auditing.

FY04 - Audit = 153 and Support = 63

FY05 - Audit = 144 and Support = 49

FY06 - Audit = 155 and Support = 44

Beth Ashcroft, Maine

We are a new office, only in operation since Jan. 2005. We have been fully staffed at 7 (1 Director, 1 Secretary, 1 Principal Analyst and 4 Analysts) since end of August 2005. We are a performance audit function.