From the Evansville Courier-Press:
A key figure in Gov.
Mitch Daniels administration said Friday that ongoing examination of the beleaguered Indiana Department of Revenue is likely to turn up additional problems.
“There are indications there could be other areas” with mistakes, said Adam Horst, director of the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the revenue department. “But it’s too soon to know for sure yet. It’s important we wait until the end to see what the results are.”
The State Board of Accounts began reviewing the state income tax transactions after Daniels announced in December that a programming error had left $320 million in corporate income taxes sitting unused in an account. State examiners are now working to reconcile what Hoosiers and businesses have paid into the Department of Revenue over the past decade with what’s been distributed to state and local governments.
The work could take weeks or months to finish, Horst said.
Then Horst announced a second major error last week. He acknowledged the state had shorted local governments $206 million in income tax payments over 14 months. That discovery led Daniels and GOP leaders to call for an outside audit, something Democrats had been pushing for months.
On Friday, the State Budget Committee — a five-member group that includes Horst and four legislative fiscal leaders — took the first steps toward that audit. The group asked Horst to begin collecting information from companies interested in conducting the audit and then bring the information back to the committee in May, where members hope to hire a company for the job.
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Lawmakers said they want the audit to include a look at the Department of Revenue’s information technology work as well as its operations. Rep. Bill Crawford of Indianapolis, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the audit needs to be thorough and take place soon.
“There could be mistakes occurring right now that have consequences,” Crawford said. “We agree that this was not intentional. But the consequences — whether this was intentional or unintentional — are severe and we need to know what’s happening.”
Fiscal leaders said they also want to consider whether the state should implement systems for other types of regular internal and external audits. Currently, the State Board of Accounts conducts only financial audits. It does not consider operational, programming, compliance or efficiency issues, said state examiner Bruce Hartman.
Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, said the Department of Revenue problems should lead to a larger discussion about the types of reviews the state conducts of its agencies and whether more internal controls system should be in place.
“We need to take a survey of best practices in state governments,” Hershman said. “We need to consider whether any of the other systems are frankly working better.”
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http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/apr/13/indiana-budget-official-says-other-errors-states-f/
