CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Senate today unanimously passed Senate Bill 500, providing that the West Virginia Legislative Auditor “has the authority and duty to make a regular review of the finances of each volunteer fire company” in the state.
At present, both the Legislative Auditor and the State Auditor conduct rolling audits of each of the state’s more than 400 volunteer fire departments, albeit with the Legislative Auditor reviewing only state funds received by volunteer fire departments and the State Auditor reviewing each department’s entire finances.
“Senate Bill 500 will eliminate this unnecessary overlap,” said State Auditor Mark Hunt, “making the process more efficient and removing the burden of duplicative financial examinations by multiple state agencies.”
Although Senate Bill 500 consolidates the audits of volunteer fire departments with the Legislative Auditor, existing Code will remain unchanged as to the requirement that audits or financial examinations “shall be scheduled as to complete a review of each volunteer fire company at least once every five years.” Auditor Hunt credited Senator Laura Chapman (R-Ohio) for sponsoring the bill and bringing the issue before the Legislature.
“Under current law, which will remain unchanged, the scope of the audits will include all income of the volunteer fire departments, regardless of the source of funds, the assets, liabilities, and all expenditures of the departments,” said Senator Chapman. “Likewise, current law also provides that our volunteer fire departments may be audited more than once in a five-year period if there is reason to think that loss, mismanagement, misuse, or waste of funds is occurring.”
In those instances, Senate Bill 500 would require the Legislative Auditor—“upon discovering any concerning or suspicious financial transactions”—to report the matter to the State Auditor’s Office “to investigate and pursue correction or prosecution…of any misconduct, mismanagement, misuse, or waste.”
Senate Bill 500 now goes to the West Virginia House of Delegates for consideration and passage. The Legislature’s 60-day Regular Session concludes on April 12