History & Legislation

In accordance with House Bill 599 (2015 Ga Law 3826) signed into law as of May 12, 2015 via act 206, the independent internal auditor function and the Audit Oversight Committee was created in response to the public interest. The citizens required that the General Assembly provide for the proper administration and operation of the DeKalb County government. Accordingly House Bill 599 sponsored by Scott Holcomb, 81^st dist., Mary Margaret Oliver, 82^nd dist., Mike Jacobs 80^th dist., Dar’shun Kendrick 93^rd dist., Billy Mitchell 88^th dist., and Stacy Abrams 89^th dist., by establishing by law an independent internal audit function to assist in the governing authority, to accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. The independent audit function shall be headed by a Chief Audit Executive (the auditor), who is appointed by a majority vote of the DeKalb County Commission for a five (5) year term. Then, to ensure the independence of the audit function, the bill provided for the creation of an Audit Oversight Committee to provide watchful and responsible care to ensure that full transparency and accountability prevails in the interest of the public trust and good government. The committee was appointed by both state and local governing authorities who are elected by citizens; with the DeKalb County Board of commissioners appointing two members, the DeKalb County Chief Executive Office appointing one member, the DeKalb Delegation to the State Senate appointing one member, and the DeKalb Delegation to the State House appointing one member for a total of five members appointed to the Audit Oversight Committee.

 The Chief Audit Executive (the Auditor) shall be appointed by a majority vote of the DeKalb County Commission for a five (5) year term, who if failure to appoint within 30 days such appointment will be made by the committee. The purpose is to provide objective information on the operations of government programs, assist managers in carrying out their responsibilities, and help ensure full transparency and accountability to the public trust.

The auditor shall have the authority to conduct financial and performance audits of all departments, offices, boards, activities, agencies, and programs of the county in order to independently and objectively determine acquiescence in governance, compliance, legality, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity in achieving good government in DeKalb County.

The Committee in its oversight responsibilities shall have the authority to propose the budget for the Office of Internal Audit, administrate the selection of the Chief Audit Executive, participate in external audit selection, assist in the one to five year audit scheduling, review final audit reports prior to release, confer with the auditor and commission on the annual audit report, monitor follow-up of reported findings to assure corrective action, and to confer with the commission annually to discuss remedial actions, process improvements, and other necessary governance.

The inaugural members of the Audit Oversight committee as appointed by the statutory governing authorities as of November 1, 2015 were:

In accordance with the 2015 Ga Law 3826, referred to as HB599 (lines 213-214) governing the self-election of committee officers, the inaugural Audit Oversight Committee elected Harold Smith, Jr. as Chairperson and Gena Major as Vice Chairperson during their first committee meeting on November 19, 2015, to serve a minimum one year term in that capacity as established in their governing bylaws.