By:  Wentworth                                                    S.B. No. 1581


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to providing that an audit working paper of a county 
auditor is excepted from required public disclosure under the 
public information law.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 84, Local Government Code,  
is amended by adding Section 84.903 to read as follows:
	Sec. 84.903.  AUDIT WORKING PAPER EXCEPTED FROM REQUIRED 
PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.  (a)  In this section:
		(1)  "Audit" means an audit authorized or required by a 
statute of this state or the United States and includes an 
investigation.
		(2)  "Audit working paper" includes all information, 
documentary or otherwise, prepared or maintained in conducting an 
audit or preparing an audit report, including:
			(A)  intradepartmental and interdepartmental 
communications; and    
			(B)  drafts of the audit report or portions of 
those drafts.        
	(b)  An audit working paper of an audit of the county auditor 
is excepted from required public disclosure under the public 
information law, Chapter 552, Government Code.  If information in 
an audit working paper is also maintained in another record, this 
section does not except that other record from required public 
disclosure under the public information law.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to 
audit working papers created before, on, or after the effective 
date of this Act.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives 
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as 
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this 
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this 
Act takes effect September 1, 2003.