State Auditor of Mississippi

State Auditor of Mississippi
State Auditor of Mississippi
	Incumbent; Shad White; since July 17, 2018
Term length	Four years, renewable, no term limits
Inaugural holder	John R. Girault
Formation	1817
Website	osa.state.ms.us

The state auditor of Mississippi is an elected official in the executive branch of Mississippi's state government. The duty of the state auditor is to ensure accountability in the use of funds appropriated by the state legislature by inspecting and reporting on the expenditure of the public funds.^[1]

Shad White is the incumbent state auditor of Mississippi as of 2022. He assumed office on July 17, 2018.^[2]

History of the office

The position of state auditor was enumerated as part of the executive branch in Mississippi's first constitution in 1817. The office was filled by the choice of the Mississippi Legislature.^[3] The first auditor, John R. Girault, was elected on December 19, 1817.^[4] The 1832 constitution stipulated that the auditor was to be popularly elected to serve a two-year term.^[5] The 1869 Constitution extended the term to four years.^[6]

The fourth Constitution of Mississippi, ratified in 1890, made the state auditor ineligible to hold consecutive terms,^[7] and barred the state auditor and state treasurer from immediately succeeding each other.^[8]^[9] This measure was implemented as an effort to prevent collusion between the two officeholders, after a series of embezzlements and misuses of public funds during the Reconstruction era.^[10] A 1966 constitutional amendment lifted the prohibitions, making the state auditor eligible to serve consecutive terms.^[11] In 1986, the Constitution Committee of the Mississippi House voted to approve a proposal to limit the state auditor to a ten-year tenure,^[12] but the measure was rejected by the full House after initially being passed by the state senate.^[13] The 1890 constitution also required the auditor to publish a report of all expenses incurred by the legislature during its sessions, though this responsibility was transferred to a different officer in 1989.^[14]

In 1993 some employees in the Department of Audit's investigative division were made law enforcement officers. Originally restricted to exercising the power of arrest only after an individual had been indicted by a court following an auditing investigation, in 2003 the officers were granted full arrest powers and thus permitted to arrest anyone for any crime they detected in the course of their duties.^[15]

Hamp King, who held the office from 1964 to 1984, was the first certified public accountant to serve as state auditor.^[16] Ray Mabus, who became auditor in 1984, raised the public profile of the office through a crackdown on corruption.^[17] The incumbent auditor, Shad White, assumed office on July 17, 2018.^[18]

Powers, duties, and structure

Under Article 5, Section 134, of the Mississippi Constitution, the state auditor is elected every four years. Candidates for the office must meet the same constitutional qualifications as candidates for the position of secretary of state; they must be at least 25 years old and have lived in the state for at least five years.^[19] They are elected to a four-year term without term limits.^[20]

The state auditor is responsible for auditing state agencies, county governments, school districts, and tertiary educational institutions. They also conduct data audits for public schools and monitor state agencies' inventory. They advise local governments on accounting matters in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and relevant laws, and investigate misuse of public funds.^[20] The office lacks the ability to prosecute cases of criminal wrongdoing in court and, in such instances where wrongdoing is believed to have occurred, typically turns over its findings to other prosecutors.^[21]

The Department of Audit has approximately 150 employees, including about 40 certified public accountants. It has four divisions: Financial and Compliance Audit Division, Investigative Division, Government Accountability Division, and the Technical Assistance Division.^[22] The auditor's salary is $90,000 per year, but is set to increase to $150,000 annually in 2024.^[23]

List of auditors

Source: Mississippi Official & Statistical Register^[24]

Territorial auditors (1798–1817)

Charles B. Howell
Beverly R. Grayson
Park Walton

State auditors (1817–present)

#	Name	Term of office
1	John R. Girault	1817–1819
2	John Richards	1819–1822
3	Hiram G. Runnels	1822–1830
4	Thomas B. J. Hadley	1830–1833
5	John H. Mallory	1833–1837
6	A. B. Saunders	1837–1842
7	J. E. Matthews	1842–1847
8	George T. Swann	1847–1851
9	Daniel R. Russell	1851–1855
10	Madison McAfee	1855–1859
11	Erasmus Burt	1859–1861
12	A. B. Dilworth	1861–1862
13	A. J. Gillespie	1862–1865
14	Thomas T. Swann	1865–1869
15	Henry Musgrove	1869–1874
16	William H. Gibbs	1874–1876
17	Sylvester Gwin	1878–1886
18	W. W. Stone	1886–1896
19	W. D. Holder	1896–1900
20	William Qualls Cole	1900–1904
21	Thomas Monroe Henry	1904–1908
22	Elias Jefferson Smith	1908–1912
23	Duncan Lafayette Thompson	1912–1916
24	Robert A. Wilson	1916–1920
25	W. J. Miller	1920–1924
26	George Dumah Riley	1924–1928
27	Carl C. White	1928–1932
28	Joe S. Price	1932–1936
29	Carl Craig	1936–1940
30	J. M. Causey	1940–1944
31	Bert J. Barnett	1944–1948
32	Carl Craig	1948–1952
33	William Donelson Neal	1952–1956
34	E. Boyd Golding	1956–1960
35	William Donelson Neal	1960–1964
36	Hamp King	1964–1984
37	Ray Mabus	1984–1988
38	Pete Johnson	1988–1992
39	Steve Patterson	1992–1996
40	Phil Bryant	1996–2008
41	Stacey Pickering	2008–2018
42	Shad White	2018–present