Legislative auditor; performance analysis

The legislative auditor, in cooperation and coordination with the Board of Regents, shall annually audit data submitted or to be submitted by institutions to the Board of Regents as indicators of meeting performance objective targets established by or pursuant to this Part to ensure that the data is reliable. The auditor shall complete all audits pursuant to this Section and report his findings to the Board of Regents and to the legislature prior to the board's annual vote on whether an institution will be able to exercise tuition authority and operational autonomies pursuant to this Part. Each institution shall provide to the legislative auditor all of the information that the auditor requests to conduct audits pursuant to this Section. The legislative auditor shall charge the actual costs of such audits to the institution being audited; however, no institution shall be charged more than ten thousand dollars for such audits in any single fiscal year unless a higher amount is authorized by the Legislative Audit Advisory Council. The council may authorize the auditor to charge an institution more than ten thousand dollars in a fiscal year if the additional actual costs are proven to be related to the scope of work described in this Section. No provision of this Section shall be construed to limit the authority of the auditor under any other provision of law. The legislative auditor shall, to the extent that he determines feasible and in the best interests of the state, take steps to minimize disruption of normal operations at the institutions such as conducting such audits in conjunction with the institution's financial audit.