Rhode Island § 35-20-2 - Public Corporation Financial Integrity and Accountability

§ 35-20-2. Policy.

(a) The legislature hereby finds that:

(1) Fraud and errors in public and quasi-public programs are more likely to occur from a lack of sufficient internal control structures in the state-authorized public corporations.

(2) Effective internal control structures provide the basic foundation upon which public accountability must be built.

(3) An entity’s system of internal control structures consists of policies and procedures designed to provide management with reasonable assurance that the agency achieves its objectives and goals including:

(i) Reliability of financial reporting;

(ii) Compliance with applicable laws and regulations; and

(iii) Effectiveness and efficiency of operations.

(4) Internal control structures are necessarily dynamic and must be continuously evaluated and, where necessary, improved.

(5) Reports addressing the adequacy of the internal control structure of each public corporation are necessary to enable the executive branch, the legislature, and the public to evaluate the corporation’s performance of its public and quasi-public responsibilities and accountability.

(b) The legislature declares that:

(1) The management of each public corporation is responsible for establishing and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and policies and procedures for financial reporting.

(2) Each public corporation shall perform an assessment and produce a report on the effectiveness of the internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting and, when detected, control weaknesses must be promptly corrected.

(3) All levels of management of the public corporation must be involved in assessing and strengthening the systems of internal control structures to minimize fraud, errors, abuse, and waste of public and quasi-public funds.