BOSTON – The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 0n Thursday, Nov. 14, to make a change to its rules to limit any audit of the House ordered by the State Auditor to an outside, independent firm.
Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved Question 1, “A Law Expressly Authorizing the Auditor to Audit The Legislature,” in the 2024 election on Nov. 5. In the election, the Associated Press reports that 2,282,333 voters, 72 percent of votes cast on the question, voted to approve the question. Those casting no votes numbered 906,034, 28 percent of votes cast.
The driving force behind the question qualifying for the ballot and the campaign to approve it came from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio.
The question replaces Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 11, Section 12, with the following:
“The department of the state auditor shall audit the accounts, programs, activities and functions directly related to the aforementioned accounts of all departments, offices, commissions, institutions and activities of the commonwealth, including those of districts and authorities created by the general court and the general court itself, and including those of the income tax division of the department of revenue, and for such purposes, the authorized officers and employees of the department of the state auditor shall have access to such accounts at reasonable times and the department may require the production of books, documents, vouchers and other records relating to any matter within the scope of an audit conducted under this section or section 13, except tax returns.”
On Thursday, the house changed its rule 85A, which now says that “The House Business Manager shall annually request that the state auditor recommend a private, independent auditing firm to conduct the independent financial audit of House financial accounts.”
The rule effectively prevents DiZoglio’s office from conducting the audit.
Both Speaker of the House Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have said they remain open to changing the provisions of the question, which the legislature has the right to do. Many observers believe the question will face legal challenges.
DiZoglio made several posts on social media related to the vote.
To the House members currently caucusing. If you strip away the ability for our office to conduct the audit, you give yourselves the ability to control the scope of the audit, by an outside firm, since you’ll still control how much you pay for the audit, what you will allow their…
— Diana DiZoglio (@DianaDiZoglio) November 14, 2024
Your legislators are about to tell you to say goodbye to finding out how much they spend on NDAs and to say goodbye to finding out if they’re breaking the law and giving out state contracts to their friends. #mapoli https://t.co/wMTi9699QC
— Diana DiZoglio (@DianaDiZoglio) November 14, 2024
Foreground Image Credit: Speaker Ron Mariano/ Twitter
