Comptroller

ROBERTS APPLAUDS COMPTROLLER'S REPORT ON GOVERNMENTAL AUDITS

Will Introduce Legislation in September to Implement Recommended Reforms

(TRENTON) - Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. today applauded state Comptroller Matthew Boxer on his office's release of a new report which shines a critical light on the questionable practices some state and local governmental entities have implemented with regard to their fiscal audits.

Roberts (D-Camden) released the following statement:

Comptroller, Inspector General, and Medicaid Inspector General have Overlapping Responsibilities

Senator Steve Oroho (R-24), a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, stated today that the State Comptroller, State Inspector General and Medicaid Inspector General contribute to the overall bureaucratic maze and inefficiency in much of state government because their duties overlap.

WATSON COLEMAN/BURZICHELLI COMPTROLLER BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

Measure Establishes Cabinet-Level State Fiscal Watchdog

(TRENTON) - Governor Jon S. Corzine today signed into law legislation Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman and Assemblyman John Burzichelli sponsored to strengthen the state's oversight and accountability capabilities, enhance the state's ability to control the spending of taxpayer dollars, and combat fraud, waste, abuse or mismanagement in government through an independent Office of State Comptroller.

Sources in Office of the Governor suggest that Jon Corzine will give some consideration to the appointment of a Republican as New Jersey's first State Comptroller, and that Beth Gates, a former Director of the Division of Local Government Services, is on the short list. Gates spent six years on the Assembly Republican staff, where she was Budget Director, and four years at the Department of Community Affairs, before becoming Vice President of Elizabethtown Water Co. in 1998.