VETO MESSAGE ON HB 1190-S

                   May 15, 1997

To the Honorable Speaker and Members,

  The House of Representatives of the State of Washington

Ladies and Gentlemen:

     I am returning herewith, without my approval as to section 2, Substitute House Bill No. 1190 entitled:

"AN ACT Relating to performance audits;"

     Section 1 of this bill requires state agencies to provide in their biennial budget submittals information about the disposition of performance audit findings.  This information is valuable to the budgeting process; including it with the budget documentation provided by agencies will help strengthen the linkage between performance auditing and budgeting.

     Section 2, however, would place an open-ended obligation on all state agencies and local governments to provide periodic reports on their compliance with performance audit findings.  Current law and practices of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee already provide adequately for tracking and reporting on state agency and local government responses to significant audit recommendations.  I, therefore, see no need to place additional reporting requirements on agencies and local governments.

     For this reason, I have vetoed section 2 of Substitute House Bill No. 1190.

     With the exception of section 2, Substitute House Bill No. 1190 is approved.

                   Respectfully submitted,

                   Gary Locke

                   Governor