An existing exemption that makes confidential audit work in the Comptroller’s Office is being expanded to also include records from surveys, but won’t include surveys done by the Office of Open Records Counsel.
An amendment was added to the bill, H.B. 1682, in a House subcommittee Wednesday to make clear that the survey exemption does not apply to surveys conducted by the Office of Open Records Counsel, which is part of the Comptroller’s Office. The House State Government Subcommittee passed the bill unanimously.
The exemption currently in the statute, 10-7-504 (a)(22)(D) includes:
(A) The audit working papers of the comptroller of the treasury and state, county and local government internal audit staffs conducting audits as authorized by § 4-3-304. For purposes of this subdivision (a)(22) “audit working papers” includes, but is not limited to, auditee records, intra-agency and interagency communications, draft reports, schedules, notes, memoranda and all other records relating to an audit or investigation; and
(B) All information and records received or generated by the comptroller of the treasury containing allegations of unlawful conduct or fraud, waste or abuse.
(C) All examinations administered by the comptroller of the treasury as part of the assessment certification and education program, including, but not limited to, the total bank of questions from which the tests are developed, the answers, and the answer sheets of individual test takers.
The proposed legislation would add:
(D) Survey records, responses, data, identifying information as defined in subdivision (a)(15), intra-agency and interagency communications, and other records received to serve as input for any survey created, obtained, or compiled by the comptroller of the treasury; however, this subdivision (a)(22)(D) shall not apply to any survey conducted by the office of open records counsel, created by 8-4-601.
