South Carolina law says the State Auditor shall audit every state agency every year. For fiscal year 2024, 51 agencies got something called agreed-upon procedures instead.
In an audit, the auditor decides what to test and signs an opinion on whether the books are right. In agreed-upon procedures, the agency agrees to a list of items. The auditor checks those items, reports what turned up, and gives no opinion at the end. The State Auditor’s letters say it: “we do not express such an opinion.”
It is like having somebody look at your roof and your water heater. You learn about the roof and the water heater. Nobody has told you what shape the house is in.
The law says every agency gets audited “to the extent practicable,” and checking every agency by hand takes a lot of auditors. New software can now read every payment an agency makes and flag the ones that need a person’s eye. That makes every agency, every year, practical.
