Candidate Biography (submitted by campaign):

Leslie Merritt was elected State Auditor in 2004, when he defeated a three-term incumbent.  He is the first Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to serve as North Carolina's State Auditor. 

Merritt, a native and lifelong resident of North Carolina, was raised on a farm in rural Sampson County between Clinton and Magnolia.  He earned degrees in both Economics and Accounting from North Carolina State University. 

Prior to being elected State Auditor, Leslie Merritt owned and operated a privately held accounting and auditing business for over twenty years.  He was elected to the Wake County Board of Commissioners in 1994.  

During his time as a County Commissioner he developed a reputation as a voice of fiscal responsibility, fighting to set priorities and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of county government.  Leslie Merritt served as president of the Zebulon Elementary School PTA, the Zebulon Rotary Club and the Zebulon Lions Club.   He also served as a director with the Zebulon Chamber of Commerce. 

Les Merritt and his wife, Cheryl, are members of Zebulon Baptist Church.  They have two adult children. 

In just three short years on the job, our team has made a difference for the taxpayers of North Carolina.  We reduced a backlog of investigative audits -- some more than three years old -- by 76%.  Shortly after taking office, we discovered that nearly 1,000 state-funded non-profits were not filing the required reports to disclose how they are spending our money. 

We took action, and within months 900 had complied.  We launched a new initiative to train personnel from those non-profits to help them stay compliant.  We've increased our emphasis on proactive performance audits which help determine if government programs are achieving what they are supposed to achieve. 

During an audit of the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), we identified an estimated $16,000,000 in annual savings and $3,500,000 in one-time savings if the State moved the responsibility for SCHIP medical claims processing from the State Health Plan to the Division of Medical Assistance. 

We launched an innovative strategic auditing process uses existing hardware, software and skills in the Information System Auditing Division to analyze millions of state transactions -- far more than normally are checked during a regular agency audit.  Earlier this year, we kicked off a new initiative to follow up with previously audited agencies to ensure that they are making the changes recommended in previous audits. 

These are just a few of the things we've accomplished, and we've only scratched the surface.  If elected to a second term, I will focus on several key priorities: leveraging our recently-launched Investigative Task Force to expose fraud, waste and abuse in state government; continuing to increase our emphasis on performance audits; and continuing our efforts to transform the Auditor's office into a proactive agency that helps prevent problems rather than simply reporting them after the fact.