Last updated October 29, 2026. What the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) checks, what it does not, and what its own reviews and reports say. Office head: State Auditor Shad White. All documents below are preserved copies with download dates.
What OSA can and cannot audit
- Under Miss. Code § 7-7-211, OSA may audit any governmental entity in the state except municipalities.
- Towns and cities hire private CPA firms (§ 21-35-31). OSA posts those reports “as it was submitted” and states that “no review of the report was performed” by OSA.
- Small towns may file a compilation instead of an audit. In a compilation the CPA states it did “not audit or review” the figures and does not verify them. Example: the Town of Carrollton FY2025 and Town of North Carrollton FY2020 reports, both compilations by Taylor, Powell, Wilson & Hartford, P.A. of Greenwood.
Nonprofit spending: the tracking gap
In 2025 OSA released two reports on state money sent to nonprofits. OSA said that until 2025 no one in state government could determine the total amount of taxpayer money going to nonprofits or produce a list of the nonprofits receiving it.
- May 2025: report on HIV prevention grants from the State Department of Health; more than $850,000 to three nonprofits over four years.
- September 22, 2025, “Mississippi Non-Profit Spending: Part 2”: named My Brother’s Keeper (over $250,000 subgrant), 100 Black Men of Jackson ($40,000 effort), and the Juanita Sims Doty Foundation (over $2.4 million in TANF funds). Recommended that nonprofits report funds received, services provided and subcontracts; that agencies confirm Secretary of State registration before paying; and that directors attest to outcomes under penalty of perjury.
- OSA Non-Profit Spending Dashboard: $4,226,181,988.29 to nonprofits, FY2021 to FY2026, built from Transparency.ms.gov data (current as of October 1, 2026). Largest paying agencies: Health $791,559,438; Finance & Administration $740,587,046; Human Services $682,576,996; Education $596,033,661; Mental Health $240,362,727.
Limits of the dashboard, stated by OSA: it excludes payments to universities, community colleges, public school districts and MPACT; nonprofit status comes from a DFA vendor list, with gaps filled from IRS records “when needed and available.” A nonprofit missing from the vendor list may be missing from the total.
Peer reviews of OSA
Every three years the National State Auditors Association (NSAA) reviews OSA’s quality control system. Ratings can be pass, pass with deficiencies, or fail.
| Report date | Period reviewed | Addressed to | Rating | NSAA reviewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 14, 2015 | Jun 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015 | Stacey E. Pickering | Pass | Betty P. Kirk; Deann Haeffner |
| Aug 24, 2018 | May 1, 2017 to Apr 30, 2018 | Shad White | Pass | April V. Cassada; Andy Babbitt |
| Aug 27, 2021 | Aug 1, 2020 to Jul 31, 2021 | Shad White | Pass | Hollie S. Andrus; Kathryn D. Walker |
| Aug 16, 2024 | Apr 1, 2023 to Mar 31, 2024 | Shad White | Pass | Tim Downing; James E. Hall |
- Each review tested only OSA’s own audit work “on selected engagements.” It does not review CPA-firm audits of towns, schools or counties, and it does not grade OSA’s investigations.
- Each review covers a one-year window every three years, which is the standard NSAA cycle. Work done in June 2015 to April 2017, May 2018 to July 2020, and August 2021 to March 2023 fell outside any review window.
- Any “letter of comments” that may have accompanied these ratings is not in the copies we hold. Status: Missing.
- The 2015 file as posted contains four extra pages of an unrelated engagement letter (“Our Responsibilities as Your Entity’s Auditor”) after the one-page review.
OSA’s October 2026 review of MDAH
A limited compliance analysis of FY2025 found five problems, all accepted by MDAH Director Barry White on October 7, 2026: procurement-card receipts and sales tax, late or undated vehicle use agreements, no surety bonds for employees handling public money, one trip without authorization, and 22 of 24 vehicles underused. It did not test records management. Details: MDAH investigation. Source: OSA report.