Below is a press release from The Mississippi Legislative PEER Committee:
The Joint Legislative PEER Committee has recently released a report titled A Review of Pass-through Funding in Mississippi State Agency Appropriation Bills for Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022.
Some of the Committee’s major findings include:
Click on Title To Read Document
- PEER analyzed 222 appropriation bills enacted for fiscal years 2021 and 2022 to identify line-item language for pass-through funding. Pass-through funding, identified by PEER, totaled approximately $3.4 billion in FY 2021 and $3.1 billion in FY 2022, accounting for 15% and 13% of the total state budget, respectively.
- PEER used the definitions and exemptions identified in S.B. 2824 to determine how much of the $6.5 billion, identified as line-item pass-through funding for both FY 2021 and FY 2022, would be included or excluded in monitoring in compliance with S.B. 2824. In FY 2021 and FY 2022, less than one percent of total pass-through funding identified by PEER is subject to the monitoring requirements of S.B. 2824.
- After an analysis of state agency appropriation bills, PEER determined that over 99% of pass-through funding in FY 2021 and FY 2022 would not be subject to S.B. 2824's monitoring requirements due to:
- exemptions specified in S.B. 2824;
- the funding does not meet the definition of state money or pass-through as defined in S.B. 2824; or,
- state agencies have existing controls in place to monitor the expenditure of pass-through funding.
- After reviewing the current requirements of S.B. 2824, PEER identified ways to improve the monitoring and reporting requirements of S.B. 2824, including selection of one entity to be responsible for providing guidance to agencies and entities, for developing standard report formats, and for consolidating and reporting to the Legislature and Governor the expenditure of pass-through funding.
- To improve the oversight and transparency of pass-through funding, the Legislature should consider amending the definition of state money defined in S.B. 2824 and selecting DFA’s Office of Budget and Fund Management (OBFM) to be the entity responsible for providing oversight to state agencies and recipient entities and for consolidating expenditure reports to be presented to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
The full report can be found here (or attached below).
