Secretary of State-elect Beau Bayh said Friday that the independent audit he has promised of the Secretary of State’s office will be done by an outside firm chosen through competitive bidding. He also said Knox County Republican Chairman David Shelton will be part of the effort.
Bayh spoke during an appearance on the Rob Kendall Show.
“It will be independent, meaning that I’m not going to be conducting this as some type of partisan witch hunt,” Bayh said. “There’s going to be some outside group that’s going to look … from an unbiased perspective at the findings and go through the facts to try and gather what we need to know.”
Bayh said more details about how the audit will be structured will come “in the weeks ahead.” He said his office will issue a request for proposals, review the bids, and “select and award the contract based on merit and not based on the donor relationship, like the current Secretary of State is doing.”
Bayh said he brought Shelton into the process to show that the audit “should be a bipartisan effort rooting out corruption and wasteful spending from state government.”
“It’s also important to note that David Shelton was calling out Diego Morales before it was politically expedient to do so, unlike a lot of members of his party, so he clearly cares about good government,” Bayh said. He did not describe what role Shelton will have.
Kendall said he expected the audit to turn up things that may be legal but that average people would consider wrong. Bayh agreed.
“We should not hold our elected officials to the standard of, well, it’s not illegal, therefore it’s okay,” Bayh said. “Is hiring … Diego’s brother-in-law, is it technically legal? Seems like it was, but is it the right thing to do? Of course, it wasn’t.”
Bayh did not give a date for when the audit would be finished.
“It’s going to depend on what we find and how deep this goes,” he said. “If … we’re uncovering some mess here, it’s going to take a little bit longer to untangle that.”
Bayh said the results will be made public in a form “that’s going to be digestible to the public.” He said his office would “work with ultimately law enforcement should the need arise to hold people accountable.”
Kendall asked whether Republicans might try to hamper a Democrat in the office. Bayh said, “We will see. I hope that’s not the case.”
Bayh said that at a press conference the day after the election, Gov. Mike Braun was asked about the independent audit and said he was “100%” for it.
“If I was Max Engling, I’d say, ‘Well, where was that during the campaign?’” Bayh said.
Bayh said Engling, his Republican opponent, called him after giving his concession speech.
“Regardless of our disagreements, and there are many, we should commend people who are brave enough and courageous enough to run for public office,” Bayh said. “We should celebrate Max Engling for taking that step.”
Bayh also said he will work with legislators of both parties to end straight-ticket voting and to create a ballot initiative process. He said the initiative process should include a supermajority threshold for passage, a significant signature requirement to get a question on the ballot, and limits on outside spending.
Asked whether he would serve his full four-year term, Bayh said, “I am, and there’s a lot of work in front of us.”
