HBA-KDB H.B. 1861 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1861 By: Danburg State Affairs 3/14/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, there is an open records exception for audit work papers of the state auditor or the auditor of a state agency, which are audit blueprints that include the plan, the sampling process, and the test subject. However, this exception is not extended to cover work papers of an auditor of a political subdivision. Work papers include all information received by the auditor, including names of informants and untruthful statements, if untruthful statements were made to the auditor. Making these work papers accessible to the public may cause misinformation or allow people to take information out of context, which may be used to attack or harass public officials. Consequently, public officials are concerned that the use of out of context information may place political pressure on the auditor to not perform an attested audit. House Bill 1861 exempts an audit working paper of an auditor of a political subdivision from the provisions relating to the availability of public information. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 1861 amends the Government Code to provide that an audit working paper of an auditor of a political subdivision is excepted from provisions relating to the availability of public information if the audit is conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the United States General Accounting Office, or another professionally recognized entity that prescribes auditing standards. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.