MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — State Auditor J.B. McCuskey hopes a new partnership with West Virginia University will help small, local governments operate more efficiently.
McCuskey has arranged to have graduate accounting students at the College of Business and Economics to work in the Small Government Monitoring Project, a program to help local governments across with audits that can consume large amounts of time and resources.
“Cities are struggling financially so mightily, some of them, that they can’t afford to have it (audits) done,” McCuskey said recently on Panhandle Live on WEPM Radio in Martinsburg.
He said the state is not in a position to pay for the work so he looked for another solution.
McCuskey said it’s been a success so far, so much so that he’d like to see the program grow to other parts of the state.
“The next phase of this project is to have the same thing happening at Shepherd, and at Concord, and at Fairmont State, and at West Virginia State, and at U.C. so that we can have these little accounting outposts all throughout the state providing this needed service at zero cost to our taxpayers.”
McCuskey said the audits are completed then reviewed by his office.
He believes it will go a long way to saving money and creating more transparency in government.
The pilot program kicked off earlier this fall with 36 students.