Five years ago, a series of food poisonings in the western part of the country raised serious concern about contamination of the food supply. One state health department reported that there were 1,250 incidents in the state during that year attributable to contaminated food, including incidents related to the purchase of food at markets and restaurants. Although the cause of the problem was traced to food processing plants in several states, the Public had been extremely concerned about further outbreaks. The state enacted a statute, entitled Food Protection Program, requiring its Agriculture Department (AgDep) to: protect the states food supply by (a) conducting inspections of food growers, processors, wholesale and retail distributors, and restaurants and (b) taking such other actions (including fines, penalties and prosecution) as deemed necessary. Four other states enacted similar laws. The laws called for the officials of all five states to cooperate with each other. The states law also required its State Auditor to make a performance audit after five years to see if AgDep was operating effectively and efficiently. The five years have gone by and the State Auditor assigns you to plan an audit.

Required: a. Describe a system of internal controls that the auditor might expect to see in place so as to accomplish the intent of the law. The control system should include an appropriate monitoring and reporting system.

b. Develop a performance audit program responsive to the requirement imposed by the law on the State Auditor.