Editing Ray Mabus (section)

=== Tenure ===
Mabus was sworn in as state auditor on January 5, 1984.<ref>{{cite news| last = Oppel| first = Tom| title = Statewide officials sworn into offices; Dye vows state will continue progress| newspaper = The Clarion-Ledger| pages = 1B–2B| date = January 6, 1984| url = https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114236746/mississippi-officials-take-office-1984/| access-date = December 7, 2022| archive-date = December 7, 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221207065753/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114236746/mississippi-officials-take-office-1984/| url-status = live}}</ref> At the time he took office, he found the audit department was disorganized; in addition to being behind on hundreds of years' worth of audits, it had no filing system and thousands of dollars' worth of checks for auditing services performed for local governments and other agencies were stored in a shoebox in the auditor's office. Mabus convinced the legislature to permit the department to contract out auditing services to private [[Certified Public Accountant]] firms to work on the backlog. Using these strategies, the office eliminated the backlog in two years.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=89}} On July 1, 1985, his office adopted [[Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (United States)|Generally Accepted Accounting Principles]] for financial reporting. His office also released a single [[comprehensive annual financial report]] for state government for the 1986 fiscal year instead of separate reports for each state agency, the first time this had been done in Mississippi.{{sfn|Pugh|2020|p=33}} The consolidated report was well-received, and the legislature subsequently mandated the issuance of a comprehensive financial report by statute, though it transferred the responsibility for the document's publication to the Fiscal Management Board.{{sfn|Pugh|2020|pp=33–34}}

Mabus discovered early in his tenure that many department auditors conducting reviews of county government finances were forced to piece together county accounting records as they worked.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=89}} Though the state charged $25 per day it took to work on a county audit, most counties found this preferable than paying to maintain their own accounting. Many auditors found that records were missing, which Mabus feared might conceal evidence of fraud.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|pp=89–90}} In order to improve county accounting practices, he created a new requirement that county governments maintain up-to-date accounting records, raised the cost of daily auditing services to $100, and appointed a head of an investigative division in the department.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=90}} He had field auditors supplied with undercover tags so that their vehicles could not be traced during their investigations.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=99}}

Mabus warned the Mississippi Association of [[Board of supervisors|Supervisors]] that he would enforce financing laws strictly and would disapprove of misuse of local government resources or noncompliance with purchasing practices. In order to ease compliance, he created a technical assistance division in the Department of Audit to provide legal and accounting advice to county boards of supervisors. He also met with each of the 82 county boards to advise them of relevant state laws and his expectations. To deal with complaints of misconduct, he created a departmental [[hotline]] to field public grievances. The hotline received numerous complaints from across the state, accusing county supervisors of various acts of malfeasance including misusing county resources for private purposes, signing contracts with companies despite [[conflicts of interest]], gifting away government funds to charities, and extorting contractors.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=90}} Mabus' office ultimately audited all 82 counties during his term, enabling five to have their [[bond rating]]s restored and leading to $1.7 million in misused funds being returned to the state.<ref name=boyer/> His actions infuriated many county supervisors.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=94}}

Early in his term Mabus began collaborating with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] on a corruption investigation into Mississippi county governments known as [[Operation Pretense]].{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=91}} For the purposes of secrecy, initially only Mabus and his chief investigator in his department were aware of the scope of the federal investigation, until the first indictments against county officials were announced in February 1987.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|pp=91–92}} By the time Operation Pretense was finished, 57 public officials were indicted.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|p=197}} The Department of Audit's contribution to the investigation was mostly limited to providing purchasing records for federal prosecutors to use as evidence of wrongdoing.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|pp=87, 92}} Upon the public reveal of the investigation, Mabus appealed to the state legislature to switch counties from the beat system of government to the unit system,{{efn|Under the beat system, each supervisor on a given board is responsible for managing road construction in their assigned district, or beat. Under the unit system, road construction considerations are handled in a centralized manner by the entire board of supervisors and a county administrator and road manager.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/county-government/| title = County Government| last = McLaurin| first = Mac| date = July 10, 2017| website = Mississippi Encyclopedia| publisher = Mississippi Humanities Council| access-date = June 7, 2022| archive-date = August 15, 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220815065559/https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/county-government/| url-status = live}}</ref>}} mandate the hiring of professional county administrators, and strengthen county record-keeping standards. He also advised restricting federally-convicted criminals from holding public office, barring convicted vendors from securing government contracts, and creating a [[white collar crimes]] unit in the office of the [[Attorney General of Mississippi]].{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=92}} He was succeeded as State Auditor by [[Pete Johnson (Mississippi politician)|Pete Johnson]] on January 7, 1988.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=95}}