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CHARLESTON, WV
- Today, Governor Justice's Chief of Staff, Nick Casey, issued the
following statement:
“At the Governor’s direction, we are thoroughly reviewing the
circumstances that led to the delay of the final completion and filing of
the State’s single audit for the last three years to find out exactly who
is responsible. It’s become obvious that there is a systemic bottleneck
that got in the way of a timely audit being filed for 2014, 2015 and
2016. The Justice Administration intends to break that log jam so this never
happens again.
“Just after the Governor took office this January, Secretary John Myers
and myself made it clear that missing this major deadline again would be
a disaster. Even then, however, it was already too late since earlier
audit benchmarks from as far back as October were not met on time.
“We will provide a detailed analysis of exactly what went wrong to the
people of West Virginia immediately upon completion of our review. In the
meantime, we are also developing options to shield students from any
negative impacts this situation may have caused.”
What We Know
It’s clear that many state entities failed to hit the deadlines
established for the last three years to get their financial information
to the Department of Administration so it would be available to the
State’s outside audit firm. It’s also now clear that individuals with a
serious fiduciary responsibility to the State and their respective
agencies failed to adhere to applicable internal deadlines.
Further Exploration
The Governor’s office is focused on determining accountability for the
repeatedly late filings and minimizing how much damage the decision by
the United States Department of Education will cause for each state
institution. Continuing inquiries are being made by the Governor’s staff
as to the agencies involved.
We are working to better understand the effects of these penalties and
how they can be mitigated.
Action Plan
We believe that in August 2017 funds will be made available to each
institution in advance, in a timely manner, by the State Budget Office
for a brief period of time (not to exceed 14 days) to handle student
loans for the Fall semester. This will also minimize cash-flow problems
for the colleges, universities and community and technical colleges. This
action will alleviate financial concerns for our students for the
upcoming school year and allow us time to complete our research and take
necessary actions.
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