he Ohio state auditor said Monday that late or missing financial information from Gov. Ted Strickland's administration has made it impossible to conduct a required audit.
The announcement comes as state lawmakers are debating Strickland's two-year, $54 billion budget proposal, whose financial calculations have come under scrutiny.
Without the audit for 2008, it is unclear whether the baseline figures used in the current year and the upcoming budget plan are accurate, Auditor Mary Taylor said. She warned in a letter to the administration and legislative leaders that she may have to declare the state unauditable.
Taylor, a Republican, said the state's Office of Budget and Management hasn't provided her with the necessary statements to conduct the audit.
She said the budget office blames the delay on a new state computer system, called OAKS, that handles payroll, purchasing and other financial matters. Statements needed for the statewide audit aren't expected until June, she said.
No administration in the past five years has supplied the financial statements this late, she said. Most deliver them by Dec. 31.
Taylor said her auditors have managed to pull information from the OAKS system when auditing individual state agencies, however, and when completing her own office's financial audit.
"The delay we have experienced to date and the delay we have been told to expect appear to be unprecedented," she said. "It's most certainly troubling."
The Strickland administration has adjusted the state budget three times because of the economic downturn and has forecast a $7 billion shortfall in Ohio's next two-year budget, which begins in July and covers fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
Strickland, a Democrat, has proposed using roughly $5.8 billion in federal stimulus money to help fill the budget hole.
Taylor said she was uncertain whether the absence of a successful audit for the most recent state fiscal year might jeopardize receipt of those funds.
An audit can serve as a baseline for future budgets, provide the necessary accountability for the state to obtain credit or refinance debt, and inform taxpayers of how their money is being spent, she said.
Under Ohio law, Taylor has no authority to sanction the governor for the delay, she said, and any designation of "unauditable" would come without the consequences faced by other government entities.
The other entities she audits — cities, townships, and school districts, for example — are subject to daily fines for having such a lengthy delays.
A message was left with the governor's office seeking comment.
Robin Prunty, an analyst who watches Ohio for the New York-based bond rating agency Standard & Poor's, said the state's fiscal year 2007 audit was also delayed as a result of issues related to pulling financial information off the new state computer system.
"It (the delay) did not, in and of itself, affect the rating," she said.
If the state were declared unauditable, the rating agency might take notice, Prunty said.
"We would need to know exactly what that means," she said. She said budget figures are generally not drawn from state audits, which often are conducted using different accounting methods.
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