(a) The accounts of each public defender corporation shall be audited annually as soon as possible after the end of each state fiscal year. Such audits shall be conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards by the State Tax Commissioner.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 29-21-19

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10

(b) The audits shall be conducted at the place or places where the accounts of the public defender corporation are normally kept. All books, accounts, financial records, reports, files, and other papers or property belonging to or in use by the public defender corporation and necessary to facilitate the audits shall be made available to the person or persons conducting the audits; and full facilities for verifying transactions with the balances and securities held by depositories, fiscal agents, and custodians shall be afforded to any such person.

(c) The report of the annual audit shall be filed with the agency and shall be available for public inspection during business hours at the principal office of the public defender corporation. The report of each such audit shall be maintained for a period of at least five years at the office of the agency.