Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight
Half a dozen entities comb through South Dakota’s financial records each year to ensure a balanced budget or that details are accurately recorded.
South Dakota Compliance Auditor Missy Lock, who was hired last summer to the new position in the Auditor’s Office, said there are plenty of people who “look at the books.” But something was missing.
“Nobody’s looking at the bookkeepers,” Lock said.
That’s her job now.
Lock’s position was created after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 60 last year, which expanded the auditor’s access and investigative authority to monitor state spending.
The state Attorney General’s Office has prosecuted numerous cases of criminal activity by state employees over the past two years. One former Department of Social Services employee, Lonna Carroll, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the theft of $1.8 million from the state across multiple years. In response, lawmakers have called on state offices and departments to improve their internal controls and oversight.
State Auditor Rich Sattgast introduced Lock to the legislative budget committee on Tuesday at the Capitol in Pierre.
Lock reviews bookkeeping processes, checks that new hire background checks are performed, and analyzes day-to-day operations to ensure dual controls, separation of duties and other financial controls are in place. She also meets with the fiscal employees in person.
“We want to be sure that the people who actually have access to our state funds are continuously monitored,” Lock told lawmakers.
Sattgast added that Lock will be instrumental in analyzing data from agencies and identifying anomalies or changes to spending. Lock formerly served as the finance officer for the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development and as an investment accountant for the South Dakota Investment Council.
Information Lock needs in her role will be easier to access once the Bureau of Finance and Management’s Project Bison financial reporting software is online, Lock said.
Project Bison, which replaces South Dakota’s more than 35-year-old financial reporting system, is expected to come online in July, Bureau of Finance and Management Commissioner Jim Terwilliger said.
“We expect greater efficiencies. We expect having better controls in place from a technology perspective,” Terwilliger said. “That’s something that we work with the State Auditor’s Office on. When it comes to issuing payments, a lot of that will be streamlined electronically.”
In addition to the multimillion-dollar upgrade to the financial reporting system, the bureau leads the state’s Internal Control Board and initiative. Terwilliger told lawmakers that the board reviews procedures and processes to prevent future fraud.
“This has been a multi-year effort in terms of establishing a statewide, consistent framework that’s documented in a consistent manner,” Terwilliger said.