In the wake of cuts to the State Auditor’s office operating budget, State Auditor Jim Zeigler announced in June that in order to help keep the State Auditor’s office operating he would, in addition to his normal duties as State Auditor, also train to work as a field auditor. There he will do the actual property inventory of the state’s 175 agencies totaling over $1.1 billion in state property.
On Tuesday, Zeigler made good on his word and began training as a field auditor starting with the Alabama Speaker of the House, Mac McCutcheon‘s office.
Zeigler continued, “We were looking for 50 items of state property. We found 49, missing one printer. It may have been moved to another office, so the staff there is looking for it. Hope we can update it to reflect a perfect audit.”
The audit took took an hour and 45 minutes to complete.
“Speaker Mac McCutcheon came in from Huntsville while we were finishing up the audit, and I talked to him. I had let him know last week that I would be in his offices, and why,” Zeigler added. “We had not anticipated any problems in the Speaker’s offices, and there were not any surprises.”
Zeigler says he will continue to train as a professional auditor as his office’s budget has been cut 28.5 percent since January 2015 when he first took office.
“At some point, I will be on my own and will hit the road by myself,” Zeigler explained. “I can make up for one of three auditors that we have lost as my budget was cut.”
According to Zeigler, his office is now current on all state audits.
