House OKs auditor's request for $3 million

Advertiser Staff and News Services

The state House approved a $23 million legislative budget package that gives state Auditor Marion Higa $3 million to start conducting financial audits of state agencies.

Gov. Linda Lingle and Republicans in the House objected, sparking the first partisan skirmish of the 2004 legislative session that began Jan. 21. The House voted 40-8 to approve House Bill 2585 and send it to the Senate.

The money would be put in a revolving fund to pay for the audits, with reimbursements to be made by those agencies being scrutinized.

Last session, the Legislature approved a bill transferring authority over the financial audits of state agencies from the Department of Accounting and General Services to the Office of the Auditor. Lingle vetoed the bill, but it was overridden in special session.

House Republicans this year protested not just the transfer in auditing functions to state Auditor Marion Higa's office, but the $3 million appropriation she requested. Rep. Mark Moses, R-40th (Makakilo, Kapolei, Royal Kunia), said the request was substantially more than what state Comptroller Russ Saito estimated the audits would cost.

Moses introduced a floor amendment seeking to lower the appropriation to $988,000 but it was defeated 40-8 along party lines.

Democrats said the transfer of duties to the auditor's office allows for more independent audits of state agencies. Republicans said that's far from the truth since Higa's office is a legislative agency and that the other system had worked for years.

Democrats pointed out that Lingle and the Republicans supported the transfer until Lingle became governor. Lingle noted that when then-Gov. Ben Cayetano, a Democrat, vetoed the same measure in 2002, the Democrats didn't override it.