Former Oklahoma State Auditor Outlines Process Ahead Of TPS Audit

As the state gets ready to audit Tulsa Public Schools, former state auditor Gary Jones explained what the process will look like.   

The state auditor's office said it would be inappropriate to comment during an ongoing investigation, so News On 6 spoke with Oklahoma’s previous state auditor to learn more about the process. Jones served as the State Auditor while Mary Fallin was governor from 2011 to 2019. He said getting an audit request directly from the governor does not happen often. 

"Audited the Grand River Dam Authority, the Indian Cultural Center, things like that, so we did receive a handful of them but not very often,” Jones said. 

 Audit requests can also come from a district attorney, head of an agency, a citizen petition, or a joint request from the legislature. 

 Jones said the first step, in this case, will be for the auditor's office to sit down with the governor and define exactly what the scope of the audit will be, then estimate how much time and money it will take to get the work done. 

Next, the auditor's office will interview TPS employees, and gather as much information as it can. Jones said the timeframe for an audit can be wide-ranging. 

"The Epic audit took 10-12 months. A lot of it has to do with how much you're looking at, and how much cooperation you get from the individuals. We've had audits we've gone in and out in a few weeks, we've had others that have taken upwards of a year,” Jones said.  

Jones said it is too soon to know how much the TPS audit will cost, but the district will have to pay for it, which means taxpayer dollars will ultimately pay for the work. 

"It could be $30,000. It could be $150,000 - $200,000. All depends on the scope of the audit,” Jones said. 

The governor is expected to meet with the auditor’s office in the coming weeks. Jones said the auditor's office will do somewhere between 300 and 400 audits a year.