Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says the Legislature cannot order a “performance audit” of university development foundations.
In its January 29th meeting , the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee directed the state Auditor’s office to perform performance audits of the development foundations at UND, NDSU and Dickinson State University. But in a memorandum, Stenehjem said the state Auditor can only conduct performance audits on state agencies – and those foundations are not state agencies. Stenehjem does say because the foundations perform governmental functions on behalf of the universities, they are subject to the open records law – and can be financially audited.
