By:  Bernsen                                          S.B. No. 1674
         99S0512/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to performance audits of the Montgomery County Hospital
 1-2     District.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 258, Acts of the 65th Legislature,
 1-5     Regular Session, 1977, is amended by adding Section 17A to read as
 1-6     follows:
 1-7           Sec. 17A.  (a)  The district and the comptroller may, on the
 1-8     request of an entity listed in Subsection (b) of this section,
 1-9     enter into a contract to provide for a performance audit of the
1-10     district by the comptroller to determine whether the district is
1-11     effectively and efficiently providing the services it was created
1-12     to provide.  The comptroller shall report the findings of an audit
1-13     conducted under this section and make appropriate recommendations
1-14     on changes in the operations of the district to the board of
1-15     directors of the district.
1-16           (b)  A performance audit under this section may be requested
1-17     by:
1-18                 (1)  the board of directors of the district;
1-19                 (2)  the governing body of the municipality with the
1-20     largest population in the district; or
1-21                 (3)  the Commissioners Court of Montgomery County.
1-22           (c)  A contract under Subsection (a) of this section shall
1-23     provide that the district will reimburse the comptroller for costs
1-24     incurred in conducting the audit.
 2-1           (d)  The comptroller shall file a report containing the
 2-2     results of an audit performed under this section with the governor,
 2-3     the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of
 2-4     representatives, and the presiding officers of the committees of
 2-5     the senate and the house of representatives responsible for
 2-6     approving legislation governing the district.
 2-7           (e)  An audit may not be conducted under this section more
 2-8     often than once every two years.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-14     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-15     passage, and it is so enacted.