Boliek audits his own office in push for transparency, accountability
The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor (NCOSA), which is used to examining other offices and agencies’ actions and protocols, has flipped the script and is taking a hard look at its own office.
“The DAVE Act report prompted us to take a look at ourselves because we wanted to be able to say, well, how do we look?” State Auditor Dave Boliek told Carolina Journal in an exclusive interview last week. “If we are going to go out and report on the transparency of the spending of dollars that the public has a right to know, then I want to make sure the public knows how I’m spending right at the office.”
State agencies reported the information to NCOSA’s Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency (DAVE), which was created in August. The enabling legislation requires each state agency to report to the DAVE on how the agency spends taxpayer funds and instructs NCOSA to put together a report by the end of the year on which state agencies and jobs can be cut.
Boliek’s office released a 661-page performance audit last month that showed, as of Aug. 6, there were 8,846 long-term vacancies across 46 state agencies, totaling $1.04 billion in lapsed salary.
He told CJ there were 40 vacant positions in his office when he was sworn in in January 2025. Most, if not all, were filled by last summer, and three have only been open for about six months. In addition, the legislature gave his office an additional 45 positions under the DAVE Act, of which 30 have been hired.
New hires, new office
In total, 79 new people have been hired at a time when the state vacancy rate is slightly above 10%. Forty people have also been promoted.
One way NCOSA has attracted new talent is by retooling an administrative position into a recruitment role. As a result, the recruiter has gone to 65 university and local employment events to recruit additional staff.
Recruitment also comes from internships. The office has also gone from zero interns when Boliek started to as many as 10 at a time, with the current group ranging from accountants to law school students to those getting their MBAs
The NCOSA will also reopen a Charlotte office on Feb. 16 with seven staff members, with plans to have up to 12 people working there. The state auditor said having the Charlotte office is logical in attracting financial professionals who live in the area, who may not come to work in the Raleigh office. He said he plans on working out of that office two days a month, especially in the few months that it is open. NCOSA also has offices in Asheville, Kernersville, Greenville, and Wilmington.
restructuring the office leads to $747,000 in claims
Then, there are 22 people who have left the office, which he said is less than he expected due to the change in the administration. While Boliek didn’t give specifics, there were retirements, but others left due to what he calls “staff shifting.”
“By and large, I can say this with a lot of confidence that the staff at the State Auditor’s office is not really political, so I don’t think the political party matters to the professional staff,” he said. “I have never gotten that sense, but nevertheless, you had a political party change and a clearly different culture and direction and energy level for the state auditor’s office, and an expectation of production from the state auditor’s office.”
The state auditor said his team is, by and large, on board when it comes to the work that is expected and has been very productive with a “lot of good stuff on tap” that will be released in the coming weeks.
As a result of the “staff shifting,” $747,000 in claims, attorneys’ fees, and costs were paid out due to changing many positions from non-exempt to exempt.
Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay (1.5x their rate for hours over 40) and are paid hourly or at a salary below the exempt threshold. Exempt employees are not eligible for overtime pay. They must be paid a fixed, not hourly, salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually), and meet specific criteria for duties.
“The previous administration non-exempted everybody and made everybody permanent non-exempt staff except for one, except for the government relations position, and the government affairs position,” Boliek said. “When we did some staff shifting and moved folks from non-exempt to exempt, we incurred claims, and we felt it better to go ahead and move on.”
He acknowledged that while it was a lot of money, he is confident that it was a good decision in order to move the office forward.
“I’m confident in the decision making, and I’m confident that because of the decision making, we’ve made a lot of strides to provide value out of the auditor’s office, and I think the work product so far is proving that to be true,” Boliek told CJ. “We moved those positions to exempt positions, and people objected, and we ended up having to pay claims. It’s not a reflection of the person if they’re a good person or not; it’s policy-driven. The number, while it may seem high for Fiscal Year 2025, is less than 2% of expenses, and for Fiscal Year 2026, it’s been less than 1%.”
He stressed that the payment of all the claims, approved by the Office of State Human Resources, came from lapsed salaries or funds that had been sitting dormant in his office. Legal fees were paid separately by other sources in the budget.
A 2% retention bonus was also paid to employees from a portion of the lapsed salaries.
should the state human resources act be examined?
In restructuring his office, Boliek said it raises the question of whether the State Human Resource Act needs a fresh look when it comes to a change in leadership and allowing that leadership flexibility in the management of the office or agency.
“We’ve got a State Human Resource Act that really ties the hands of management, and elected officials, and there are good parts about the State Human Resource Act, but in this respect, because of the real rigidness of the Human Resource Act,” he told CJ. “For example, having to pay the attorneys’ fees. That’s something to me that seems a little bit counterproductive, and also with respect to putting a new office holder in a position where your expectation is that as an elected official you’re going to have flexibility to design and fill in your executive team and then when the previous office holder leaves you with little or no room to do that, what that ultimately does is it incurs claims that you end up having to having to pay in order to order to accomplish creating their own leadership team.”
The state auditor cited as another example that most elected officeholders want their own legal staff because they need to build trust with that staff and not have someone who was left over from a previous administration.
boliek: transparency and accountability are due to the public
Boliek said that while his office has been transparent about other offices and agencies regarding audits, he also wants to be transparent and accountable with the public about his own office, adding that everything he discussed and more, including budget items, can be found on NCOSA’s Internal Budget Dashboard.
“It’s a different day in the auditor’s office, and I think we have proven that,” he told CJ. “I think there’s a lot more to do, and we’re getting better and better. I do feel like the leadership in the office is coming together, and all the members of the auditor’s office are coming together around a purpose, which is transparency and accountability of public funds.”
“Boliek audits his own office in push for transparency, accountability” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.
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