State government: financial and administrative accountability.

Under the Financial Integrity and State Manager's Accountability Act of 1983, the Legislature declares it to be the policy of the State of California that, among other things, each state agency must maintain effective systems of internal accounting and administrative control as an integral part of its management practices, and that those systems be evaluated on an ongoing basis through regular and ongoing monitoring processes. This bill would additionally make a legislative declaration of the policy that it be the responsibility of the Department of Finance, in consultation with the Controller and State Auditor, to establish specified guidelines for how the independence and objectivity of the persons tasked with monitoring processes are to be maintained. The act requires that state agency heads are responsible for the establishment and maintenance of a system or systems of internal accounting, administrative control, and effective, independent, and objective ongoing monitoring of the internal accounting and administrative controls within their agencies. This bill would require that it be the responsibility of the Department of Finance, in consultation with the Controller and State Auditor, to establish guidelines to state agencies management on how the role of independent monitor should be staffed, structured, and its reporting function standardized so it fits within an efficient and normalized agency administrative framework.