LawWiki
HomeCodesSearchGlossaryAPIAbout
LawWiki

Plain English summaries of California law with zero-hallucination AI. Every summary is verified against official source text.

Product

  • Search
  • Codes
  • About

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Disclaimer

© 2026 LawWiki. All rights reserved.

HomeGovernment CodeDiv. 2Pt. 2Ch. 4Art. 1§ 10500 Legislative Auditor Oversight

§ 10500 Legislative Auditor Oversight

Government Code·California
AI Summary·Official Text·Key Terms·Related Statutes·References
AI SummaryVerified

§ 10500 Legislative Auditor Oversight

Key Takeaways

  • •The law creates a special office called the 'Auditor General' to check how the government spends money.
  • •This office can only look at and report on how money is spent—they can’t stop or change how other government groups do their own checks.
  • •A big part of the state’s money goes to local governments, so this office helps make sure that money is used well.
  • •The Auditor General helps the government decide what programs really need money and which ones might be wasting it.

Example

Imagine your school gets money from the city to buy new computers. The Auditor General’s job is like a teacher checking if the school really bought computers or spent the money on something else.

The Auditor General would look at the records to see if the money was spent the right way. They can’t punish anyone or stop the school from doing its own checks, but they tell the government if things are being done well or not.

AI-generated — May contain errors. Not legal advice. Always verify source.

Official Source
View on CA.gov

§ 10500 Legislative Auditor Oversight

It is the desire of the Legislature to create the Office of the Auditor General, whose primary duties shall be to perform performance audits as may be requested by the Legislature. The authority of the office under the direction of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee is confined to examining and reporting and is in no way to interfere with adequate internal audit to be conducted by the executive branch of the government or the state audit or other audits required by statute to be performed by the State Auditor. The Legislature also finds that a significant portion of the state budget consists of subventions to local governments and, therefore, it is necessary for the Legislature to establish independent fiscal oversight capability necessary to determine funding priorities and to evaluate the efficiency and necessity of state-supported local programs and state programs administered by local governments. (Amended by Stats. 1993, Ch. 12, Sec. 9. Effective May 7, 1993.)

Last verified: January 22, 2026

Key Terms

Office of the Auditor Generalperformance auditsJoint Legislative Audit Committeeindependent fiscal oversight capabilitystate-supported local programs

Related Statutes

  • § 10501 Joint Legislative Audit Committee
  • § 10504 Auditor General Selection Process
  • § 10502 Joint Legislative Committee Composition
  • § 10503 Committee Procedures And Powers
  • § 10504.1 Deputy Auditor General Cpa Requirement

References

  • Official text at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
  • California Legislature. Government Code. Section 10500.
View Official Source