Senate leaders boast that their $20 billion budget proposal provides more accountability for nonprofits that receive state funds. But State Auditor Les Merritt said in a letter today to legislative leaders that the Senate plan undercuts his effort to keep an eye on nonprofits.
"By striking a mere $230,000 out of a $20,000,000,000 budget, you may have inadvertently cut a primary accountability mechanism in State government, and hampered (the state auditor's) mandate to increase transparency in the largely unmonitored field of State grant recipients," Merritt wrote in a letter to Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, Dan Kane reports.
Merritt said budget proposals in the House and from Gov. Mike Easley include the spending, which would help the auditor's office expand its database that monitors the thousands of state grants to nonprofits to catch conflicts of interest between nonprofit officials and state government.
State Sen. Katie Dorsett, a budget writer who oversees the auditor's office, said Merritt's concerns have merit, but that Senate leaders did not think there was enough money available this year.
"We tried to make sure we were fair to everybody," Dorsett said.
The money could end up in the final budget, which is under negotiation between the House, Senate and Easley.
Blog RSS feed
