RALEIGH — North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek is focusing on his agency’s direction, culture and credibility in his first months in office.
Boliek, who defeated incumbent Democrat Jessica Holmes in November’s election, said he has been pleasantly surprised at the number of “committed civil servants” and “high-quality, functioning teams” working at the agency.
“In particular, I would point to our data analytics team, which is really high performing, and our IT security auditing team,” Boliek said in an interview with North State Journal.
According to Boliek, the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) has around 161 budget positions. He estimated that when he entered office, the OSA was down 40 positions but was down to between 14 and 15 as of March.
“One thing we’ve also done is we’ve completely reorganized and revamped our investigations team,” Boliek said. He said the team used to be embedded in the performance audit team, but he has separated it into its own division.
Boliek laid out the different ways the auditor’s office receives requests to conduct audits aside from legislatively mandated items.
“I think the real key at this point, from my perspective having come in, is to get the teams right and to get the culture moving in a little bit different direction,” Boliek said.
Audits are not just for other entities. Citing that the auditor’s office is undergoing its own audit, Boliek said he wants to ensure the office is “headed in the right direction because we want to give taxpayers a good return on their investment.”
Boliek also said his team is looking at ways to be more responsive and proactive to tips or submissions received through the agency’s website. Boliek says to respond more quickly, he’s formed a “rapid response team” led by Charles Dingee, one of Boliek’s primary challengers for the job.
Boliek said he was open to education funding audits, including school district spending and the Department of Public Instruction.
“No. 1, clearly when you have an area of funding that is more than 50% of the state budget, that is an area of focus that the state auditor’s office should, and under my administration, we will take seriously,” said Boliek. “No. 2, as part of the restructure of this office, I want to be very confident in the team that we put out into the field with respect to auditing the public schools.”
Boliek left the door open for the use of AI in analyzing data sets his auditors look at, adding that AI has “got to be used effectively” to find outliers, as well as patterns that are useful and that can be contextualized.
“It’s not informative to the public unless we’re able to put it into context,” he said.
Boliek said that even though his office would be producing things a lot quicker with new technology, the OSA also has to test their results to ensure they’re correct.
“We lose credibility when we’re not correct,” Boliek said. “And being correct means that sometimes it takes probably a little bit longer than I personally want it to take because I’m high energy and I like to achieve a lot.”
In addition to credibility, time and resources spent on any given audit are also items Boliek is keeping an eye on.
In a recent audit of NCInnovation (NCI), a nonprofit created to accelerate the process of getting university research into the marketplace, Boliek thought the audit could have been “turned around a little quicker” but didn’t blame staff because the audit “started under a different administration and under different operating procedures.”
“I think what we found was — and I reviewed that audit in depth — was that they’re doing what is statutorily required,” said Boliek. He noted the audit also gave NCI “productive recommendations” for enhancing communications with board members.
NCI was given a $500 million endowment from the legislature and has only used the interest gained on that money to fund its projects. Last year, an NCI board member raised questions about the nonprofit’s internal auditing compliance and requested the state auditor to investigate it.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper’s disaster recovery agency, NCORR, is also receiving “a full audit” given its struggles in assisting with recovery from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Boliek said that the report is due to the legislature on July 1.
The auditor also said his office is keeping a close eye on relief spending for Hurricane Helene, including his data analytics team setting up a dashboard to track that spending. The most recent Helene funding bill includes data sharing deadlines from Gov. Josh Stein’s office to the OSA.
“We’re hoping that continued communication between our office and the governor’s office will increase the frequency and accuracy of that data as we move forward,” Boliek said.
Boliek’s position also includes new powers after the legislature enacted a law that, in part, gives the auditor purview over appointments to the State Board of Elections, a power previously held by the governor. Stein is suing over the change, calling the changes a “power grab.”
Boliek has filed a support brief in the case and told North State Journal, “I stand by the brief. Read it and approved it.”
