Who sets the standards that auditors use in conducting audits of Minnesota local governments?
The independent entities set auditing standards for state and local governments in the United States are:
- The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national, professional organization for all Certified Public Accountants. Its mission is to provide members with the resources, information, and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public as well as employers and clients.
- The Comptroller General of the United States of the U.S. Government Accountability Office is a federal government entity that issues Government Auditing Standards, also know as the “yellow book”, which supplement the standards of the AICPA and are required for certain audits of state and local governments. In particular they are required for audits of many entities receiving federal funding.
- The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is a federal agency that has issued Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) , which provides the guidance for complying with the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 (the Single Audit Act), a federal law requiring audits of entities expending a certain threshold of federal funding.
- The Office of the State Auditor issues the Minnesota Legal Compliance Audit Guide for Political Subdivisions. This audit guide establishes requirements for additional audit procedures for audits of Minnesota local governments. The procedures are to determine whether a local government is complying with certain Minnesota laws.