Request By:
Dr. James B. Graham
Auditor of Public Accounts
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Bureau for the Blind is operating a concession stand within the Louisville Post Office. You ask whether that operation is subject to audit by the Auditor of Public Accounts, pursuant to KRS 43.050?
The State Auditor has an auditing responsibility as relates to all state agencies. KRS 43.050(2)(a).
The Bureau for the Blind is created within the Education and Arts Cabinet of central state government. KRS 163.470(1). The division of business enterprises is a part of the Bureau for the Blind. See KRS 163.470(14). Since the concession in the Louisville Post Office is under the direction and authority of the Bureau for the Blind, it is our opinion that the concession operation is subject to audit by the Auditor of Public Accounts. In addition, under KRS 12.020, the Cabinet for Education and the Arts and the Bureau for the Blind are expressly mentioned as a part of the central state administrative organization. Those units listed in KRS 12.020 are integral parts of the executive branch of state government.
Hogan v. Glasscock, Ky., 324 S.W.2d 815 (1959).
You have written that the contract between the Louisville Post Office and the Kentucky Department of Education requires that an annual audit report be prepared by an independent certified public accountant and forwarded to the post office as contracting officer.
In view of the answer given to your first question, you ask whether the audit report of the independent certified public accountant required by the contract may be accepted in lieu of a state audit. You have also informed us that the audit in question is being performed by a bureau employee.
Since the State Auditor has the responsibility for auditing the subject organization, there is nothing in the statutes that would permit him to accept the audit of the employee.