California Code, Government Code - GOV § 10500

It is the desire of the Legislature to create the Office of the Auditor General, whose primary duties shall be to perform performance audits as may be requested by the Legislature. The authority of the office under the direction of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee is confined to examining and reporting and is in no way to interfere with adequate internal audit to be conducted by the executive branch of the government or the state audit or other audits required by statute to be performed by the State Auditor.

The Legislature also finds that a significant portion of the state budget consists of subventions to local governments and, therefore, it is necessary for the Legislature to establish independent fiscal oversight capability necessary to determine funding priorities and to evaluate the efficiency and necessity of state-supported local programs and state programs administered by local governments.