(FRANKFORT, Ky.) —A public dispute has emerged between Kentucky Auditor Mike Ball and Governor Andy Beshear’s administration over the handling of the state’s annual Single Statewide Audit of Kentucky (SSWAK I), released yesterday.
Following the report’s publication, Governor Beshear alleged that the Auditor’s Office had shared the document with members of the press before making it publicly available and before the Governor had an opportunity to review it.
Auditor Ball’s office pushed back on that claim, saying the Governor’s administration had received the report’s findings on two separate occasions prior to its public release. According to Ball’s office, individual findings were shared with the administration months in advance, and the administration submitted written responses to each finding — agreeing with nearly all of them and acknowledging the need for changes and updates. The office also said the full report was sent directly to the Governor’s Office before its public dissemination.
“In order to complete our statewide audit of the Commonwealth, we provided every finding in this report to the Governor’s administration months in advance,” Auditor Ball said in a statement. “Notably, they responded in writing to every finding and agreed openly with most of them.”
The Governor’s office has not issued a follow-up statement in response to the Auditor’s timeline. The written responses from the administration are included within the publicly released report.
The nature of the disagreement — whether proper procedures were followed in distributing the audit — is separate from the substance of the findings themselves. It was not immediately clear whether the Governor’s office would respond further to the Auditor’s account of events.
