O F F I C E O F L E G I S L A T I V E R E S E A R C H
P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
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PA 23-197—SB 1154
Government Administration and Elections Committee
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
AUDITORS OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
SUMMARY: This act explicitly exempts from disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) whistleblower complaints filed with the state auditors or
under the False Claims Act. Existing law already exempts records of an
investigation (see BACKGROUND). The act also expands this FOIA exemption to
exempt from disclosure the name of any person, instead of only the name of an
employee, who provides information on whistleblower investigations and
complaints and False Claims Act violations (§ 1).
Both the whistleblower law (CGS § 4-61dd) and False Claims Act (CGS § 4-
275 et seq.) allow any person (not just employees) to provide information to the
state auditors or attorney general. Under these laws, the state auditors and the
attorney general may not disclose the identity of a person who made a complaint
unless the person consents or the disclosure is unavoidable.
The act also requires municipal legislative bodies (or boards of selectmen if a
town meeting is the legislative body) or regional boards of education, as applicable,
to hold a public meeting on an audit that is non-compliant or shows certain
irregularities before submitting a corrective action plan (§ 2).
Under existing law, an independent auditor must file a copy of annual municipal
financial audits with the Office of Policy and Management, among other entities
(CGS § 7-393). The secretary must report his findings to certain officials if he finds
(1) evidence of unsound or irregular financial practices, management letter
comments, or lack of standard internal controls or (2) that the audit was not properly
prepared and the entity did not have permission to file a non-compliant report.
Depending on the entity, the report must be provided to the Municipal Finance
Advisory Commission, state auditors, and (1) chief executive officer (CEO) and
clerk of the municipality, (2) superintendent of schools for a regional school
district, or (3) CEO of the audited agency.
Existing law requires the superintendent or applicable CEO to attest to and
explain the secretary’s findings and submit a written corrective action plan. The act
requires that the municipal legislative body (or board of selectmen if a town
meeting is the legislative body) or regional board of education (if the report
involves a school district) hold a public meeting before the plan’s submission to
discuss the secretary’s findings and potential causes of the audit’s noted
discrepancies. Under the act, the corrective action plan must consider what was
discussed at the meeting.
Finally, the act makes minor changes that replace statutory references to
“comprehensive annual financial reports” with “annual comprehensive financial
reports” (§§ 3-7). The changes conform to recent changes made by the O L R P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
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Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2023
BACKGROUND
Related Case
In a contested case decided in 2022, the Freedom of Information Commission
(FOIC) dismissed a FOIA complaint that sought the record of a particular
whistleblower complaint; FOIC concluded that disclosing the complaint would
reveal the whistleblower’s identity. However, the commission’s dismissal order
stated that it should not be construed as concluding that all whistleblower
complaints are exempt from disclosure. Rather, FOIC ruled that these
determinations must be made on a case-by-case basis (FIC 2019-0710).