On Tuesday, Governor Gordon told us that he was committed to increasing transparency in state spending, yet he only has 7 FTE focused on auditing $91.3 billion in state and local spending.  That does not sound very transparent to me.

 

Since Governor Gordon took office in 2019, Wyoming’s state and local governments have spent $91,293,120,241 in expenses (source:  Wyoming Department of Audit).

 

Governor Gordon’s Wyoming Department of Audit has the following employees:

·        Tax Collection Responsibilities

o   Monitoring Mineral Tax Collections                            ~40 FTE

o   Monitoring Sales Tax Collections                               ~20 FTE

·        State Banking Oversight                                                             ~28 FTE

·        School District Redistribution Oversight                                       ~6 FTE

·        Auditing State and Local Governments                                   ~7 FTE

 

Audits are designed to ensure money is SPENT correctly.  But Governor Gordon has 94 of his 101 Department of Audit FTE’s NOT FOCUSED on auditing state and local spending.

 

We already have a Department of Revenue which is responsible for ensuring revenue is brought into the state consistent with Wyoming statutes. 

 

Why does the governor have another 60 FTE in the Department of Audit also focused on tax revenue collection above and beyond the resources already in the Department of Audit?

 

I thought the governor said he ran an ‘effective and efficient’ government?

 

In the governor’s audit department, he has only 7 FTE (6 FTE + 1 Manager) who are monitoring the 900-1,000 ‘tax and spend’ entities in Wyoming.  ‘Tax and spend’ entities = the state, Wyoming’s 23 counties, Wyoming’s 21 large cities, Wyoming’s ~80 small towns, and Wyoming’s hundreds of special districts

 

In other words, the governor only has 7 full time employees overseeing the spending of $91.3 billion in revenue.  Do you think 7 people have the time and energy to ‘audit’ $91.3 billion in state and local revenue?

 

For the record, these 7 people spend most of their time ‘collecting’ data from the 900-1,000 entities and then creating ‘reports.’  In other words, nearly all of their time is not even spent ‘auditing’ to confirm where this $91.3 billion is being spent.

 

The public employee who runs ‘auditing’ for the state and local governments said his job is a ‘joke’ during public testimony in the summer of 2025.

 

The director for the Department of Audit has suggested that he does not really have any statutory capabilities to audit this $91.3 billion in public spending…even though Wyoming Titles 9 and 16 have more than 300 ‘shall’ and ‘require’ statements he must follow regarding public spending…

 

To summarize…do the following facts suggest Governor Gordon cares about fraud in Wyoming?

·        The public funds administrator responsible for overseeing audits of state and local entities thinks his job is a ‘joke’

·        The director of the Department of Audit does not think he has the ability to truly audit state and local spending

o   Even though he has subpoena power

o   There are more than 300 ‘shall’ and ‘require’ statements governing his audit responsibilities in Wyoming

·        Only 7 FTE are ‘auditing’ $91.3 billion in spending over the last 7 years

 

If you haven’t taken a look at Senate File 62, you may want to.  If Governor Gordon does not care about fraud in Wyoming, maybe Senate File 62 is the answer

 

$91.3 billion in state and local spending for a state of 587,000 people is a LOT of money.

 

Yours kindly,

B Alfred Marshall