Minnesota Legal Compliance Audit Guide for Local Government - Introduction

INTRODUCTIONThis Legal Compliance Audit Guide was prepared by the Office of the State Auditorpursuant to M inn. Stat. § 6.65, in consultation w ith representatives from the AttorneyGeneral’s Office, towns, cities, counties, school districts, and private sector publicaccountants. The purpose of the task force was to establish minimum complianceguidelines for verification by auditors engaged in the process of auditing politicalsubdivisions of the state.This guide is divided into specific sections and presented in checklist form to assist theauditor of government units in the verification of statutory compliance. The guide isnot meant to be a complete compilation of all laws affecting municipalities or acomplete analysis of the laws cited throughout. The checklist is meant to act as areference guide regarding minimum legal compliance, and municipal auditors mustexamine, in addition to applicable law s cit ed in t he guide, those law s creating, grantingpower to, and restricting the municipal entities they are auditing.Under each section, except for the initial quest ion est ablishing the t ransaction coveredby the topic heading and except where the explanation of a given question indicatesotherwise, all questions should be answered in the affirmative. A negative answerindicates a compliance problem, and the user of the checklist is directed to thestatutory section indicated on the left-hand side of the page. If after examination ofthe appropriate ...