Chon Gutiérrez
Executive Director
California Performance Review
1102 Q Street, Suite 6100
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Mr. Gutiérrez:
As members of the California Performance Review (CPR), we are pleased to present our final report – Keeping the Books: California's Budget, Financial and Performance Review.
In accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), we conducted an attestation engagement to report the results of a set of agreed-upon procedures as determined by the audit team and CPR. These procedures, detailed in the report, covered the areas of financial systems and reporting, budgetary processes and controls, performance measurement systems and uses, and state oversight of its fiscal affairs. Under this type of review, the auditor gathers and assesses data, but is not required to provide conclusions, findings or recommendations. However, in this case, we have drawn conclusions to be of assistance to the CPR effort, and we present them and our recommendations in the body of the report.
Our approach included interviews of state fiscal and administrative management, surveys of audit and fiscal officers, research of historical budgetary and cost data, and analysis/synthesis of a wide range of source material, primarily that used to record and report state operations. We present our report to CPR Executive Management for its information and use. This report is not intended for and should not be used by anyone other than the specified party. However, its distribution is not restricted for any other reason.
Sincerely,
Richard Bon Smith, CPA, CGFM
California Performance Review