Schweich's new auditing guidelines

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Intro:	State auditor Tom Schweich says his new auditing program will react more quickly to substantial auditing issues.
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Wrap: State Auditor Tom Schweich introduced a new program in a press conference Wednesday he called rapid response auditing for government departments.

The new program led by Darrell Moore allows Schweich to freeze all documentation relating to a state audit.

Schweich says freezing documents will prevent a department from destroying evidence that could incriminate itself.

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Description: "The risk in situations like this, where there's allegations of embezzlement or fraud or tremendous money mismanagement is that evidence will be destroyed. And I think that probably has happened because we have not been able to get records we wanted."

Schweich says evidence is the key to identifying and prosecuting more efficiently.

From Jefferson City, I'm Brian Pepoon.

Intro:	State auditor Tom Schweich unveiled a new program that will monitor recommendations made to government programs being audited.
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Wrap: State Auditor Tom Schweich announced a new program led by Darrell Moore.

It specifies the actual date that recommendations must be implemented by along with follow up visits by the auditor.

Previously, an audited program had years to adhere to recommendations and Schweich says most did not take the audit seriously.

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Description: "We make recommendations, the subject of the audit concurs to make changes. We come back two, four years later, depending on what the entity is, sometimes we don't come back until ten years later and absolutely nothing has been done about it."

Schweich says his department will use its power to subpoena in order to ensure compliance with an audit.

From Jefferson City, I'm Brian Pepoon.

Intro:	State Auditor Tom Schweich announced changes for how the state will audit its programs in the future.
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Wrap: Tom Schweich held a news conference Wednesday to set forth a new auditing plan.

He says it will pressure government programs to comply with auditor recommendations.

One new policy calls for swifter auditing that will freeze a department's documents to prevent destruction of evidence.

The other lists a specific date for department compliance as well as repeated visits by auditors.

Prior to Schweich's new plan, he says audits took about a year to complete, making recommendations moot.

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Description: "I think some subjects of audits view audits as something you just need to survive, get through it, take whatever licks you have to take from the media for the bad things they say, and then just move on. And people don't take the audits seriously."

Schweich says these new provisions will accelerate the auditing process.

From Jefferson City, I'm Brian Pepoon.