ANNAPOLIS, MD — Governor Wes Moore today directed members of his cabinet to review and enhance audit resolution procedures across State agencies to promote fiscal responsibility. The directive works alongside $24 million in targeted investments prioritized as part of the Moore-Miller Administration’s proposed FY2027 budget to extend operations that help prevent waste, fraud and abuse within government programs and promote continued partnership with the legislative Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee on shared solutions to resolve audit findings.
"At a time when the Trump-Vance Administration has slashed 25,000 federal jobs from our state and squeezed families’ budgets by hiking the cost of nearly everything from groceries to energy, Marylanders are rightly conscious about how and where taxpayer dollars are spent,"
said Gov. Moore. "We continue to confront outdated practices in our fiscal systems that have spanned multiple administrations and decades head-on. We will act with urgency to drive reform and deliver more results for Marylanders."
The governor’s proposed FY2027 budget makes investments in the fiscal management of the State, including:
- $16 million towards building and replacing the State’s antiquated financial management system, bringing total project funding to date to $66 million;
- $5 million and additional staff to assist in resolving repeat audit findings in agencies;
- $2 million to invest in State fiscal leadership capacity and recruitment; and
- $1 million to extend the Government Modernization Initiative in the Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement to find cost efficiencies.
In the directive issued today, Governor Moore laid out a course of action for State agencies to promote fiscal responsibility through programmatic oversight; systematic review of open State and federal audit findings; review and articulation of audit resolution procedures; and centralized reporting to track progress. Working with the Department of Budget and Management’s Audit and Finance Compliance Unit, agencies will also be required to streamline best practices to share tools and techniques. The governor’s chief of staff will monitor progress and tracking toward aligned outcomes.
“Governor Moore’s proposed FY2027 budget invests funding in strengthening the State’s fiscal operations, management, and oversight,”
said Acting Department of Budget and Management Secretary Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann. “This administration has proposed a thoughtful and targeted plan that ensures every tax dollar is spent wisely and for its intended purpose.”
The investments and directive action build on the Moore-Miller Administration’s longstanding commitment to fiscal responsibility and government modernization.
In January 2025, amid the State’s worst budget crisis in at least twenty years, the governor
signed an executive order directing all State agencies to work in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement to review data to find operational cost savings, streamline operations, and eliminate redundancies to better serve taxpayers.
“Governor Moore’s new directive is the latest in a series of steps he is taking to improve government operations,”
said Chief Performance Officer for the State of Maryland Asma Mirza. “We are using a data-driven, heart-led approach to make government work better for Marylanders.”
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