GOVERNOR KEVIN STITT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER JOHN BUDD ANNOUNCE PLANS TO AUDIT FINANCES OF OMES

Oklahoma City, Okla. (March 28, 2019)— Governor Kevin Stitt, in conjunction with his Chief Operating Officer John Budd, announced today that he has submitted a request to the Oklahoma Auditor and Inspector’s Office for an audit of the finances of the Information Services Division of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services for the period July 1, 2017 through February 28, 2019.

“We expect all state agencies to be accountable to Oklahoma taxpayers,” said Stitt. “OMES is no exception. We have every reason to believe that OMES has unmet funding needs for the Information Services Division, as noted in the agency’s supplemental budget request. At the same time, as we have spent the first two months of our administration digging into ISD’s finances, we believe that an outside-in view of the division’s budgeting, billing, accounts receivable, and accounts payable processes will help us better understand the inherited cash-flow issues and how we can make permanent improvements.”

“The agency submitted a request for roughly $23 million in supplemental funds last October,” said Budd, who also has served as OMES Director since January. “Since our new administration arrived on Inauguration Day in January, we have further examined the numbers and have reduced that request by about one-third. We are continuing to look for efficiencies. Every additional day our team spends trying to explain a situation the new administration inherited is a day we are not focused on making service better for other State Agencies and the citizens of Oklahoma. The State Auditor’s team will do an exceptional job of assessing OMES’s processes and history, and we welcome their involvement in delivering a better, more efficient state agency.”

Gov. Stitt and COO Budd have asked that the scope of the audit include the following:

• Review of processes to estimate cash in-flows and out-flows for Fiscal 2018 and Fiscal 2019, as part of budgeting process
• Performance audit of OMES ISD billing and accounts receivable processes

Performance audit of OMES ISD accountable payable process