Agencies are required to notify the Auditors of Public Accounts and the Office of the State Comptroller of losses due to theft, vandalism, inventory, or any other loss of any value. Other losses may include employee misconduct, counterfeit bills, unreconciled cash balances, and improper or erroneous consumer transactions, etc. Agencies should generally report losses using a CO-853 Form. Agencies sometimes report using a memo if the nature of the loss requires more explanation.

Section 4-33a of the Connecticut General Statutes states:

“All boards of trustees of state institutions, state department heads, boards, commissions, other state agencies responsible for state property and funds and quasi-public agencies, as defined in section 1-120, shall promptly notify the Auditors of Public Accounts and the Comptroller of any (1) unauthorized, illegal, irregular or unsafe handling or expenditure of state or quasi-public agency funds, (2) breakdowns in the safekeeping of any other resources of the state or quasi-public agencies, (3) breach of security, as defined in section 36a-701b, or (4) contemplated action to commit one of the acts listed in subdivisions (1) to (3), inclusive, of this section within their knowledge. In the case of such notification to the Auditors of Public Accounts, the auditors may permit aggregate reporting in a manner and at a schedule determined by the auditors.”

This statute clearly requires all agencies to report any loss, regardless of its magnitude.

All reports of losses can be sent to Donna Moore (Donna.G.Moore@ctauditors.gov). If you have questions regarding this reporting requirement, please call 860-240-8656. In addition, there are examples of reports in our agency guide.

Our office reports all losses monthly to the Governor, Attorney General, State Library, Joint Committee on Legislative Management, Legislative Library, and the Clerks of the House and Senate. Our office has regular Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for these reports from several media outlets. If you report any information that cannot be publicly released, due to an FOI exemption or other confidentiality provision, please inform our office.

Any state agency proposing to enter or amend a contract for the purchase of auditing services must:

1. Notify our office (contact@ctauditors.gov) of such contract at least fifteen days prior to entering or amending it.
2. Not enter or amend such contract until the APA has advised the agency whether the audit is necessary and if our office can provide the auditing services.

For complete information, see Section 2-90(d) and Section 4-216 of the General Statues.

Public Act 25-147, effective October 1, 2025 amended Section 2-90 to require:

“Any state agency or quasi-public agency that is the subject of a report of the Auditors of Public Accounts that contains violations of state statute or regulation, other than only minor or technical recommendations, not later than six months after the issuance of the auditors’ report, shall report on the status of any corrective action undertaken by such state agency or quasi-public agency to address such violations, to the auditors, the Governor and the General Assembly, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a. Upon the receipt of the agency’s report, the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to government oversight may request the auditors to verify any matter in the agency’s corrective action report and the auditors shall have not more than sixty days to respond to such request.”

When submitting to the APA, agencies should send the report, along with supporting documentation to contact@ctauditors.gov. It would be helpful if the report and supporting documentation were submitted as one pdf document.