The following is a transcription of the January 21 WBT radio interview between newly-elected State Auditor Dave Boliek and Talk show host Pete Kaliner:

Pete Kaliner: I want to welcome to the program the newly elected, now sworn-in and already working state auditor for North Carolina, Dave Boliek. Welcome to the show, sir. How are you?

Auditor Boliek: Great. I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.

Kaliner: Yes, sir. So do I call you like, is it like Auditor Boliek? And I know you’re probably, oh, just Dave is fine. But like, is there a title that comes? Auditor Dave?

Boliek: Yeah, they call me Auditor, but Auditor Dave is good with me. Auditor Dave or… Okay. All right. If you knew what my kids called me, I mean, you know.

Kaliner: Well, and so I’ll throw this out there, just something to think about. You don’t have to answer right now, but I’m thinking just like with the labor commissioner, pictures on the elevators. Have you thought about maybe mandating your picture on everyone’s checkbooks or maybe at bank branches? I’m just throwing it out there. Could be a marketing tool for you. You could just chew it over, you know?

Boliek: That’s a great idea. I’m going to chew on that. Okay.

Kaliner: So let’s start with, first off, what does the auditor do? I know a lot of people became aware that the position really even existed when your predecessor, Beth Wood, was the auditor. And then she stepped aside after the problems that she had. She stepped down. Governor Roy Cooper installed another person into that office. You then ran against that person and beat her. And so what exactly does the auditor do?

Boliek: Yeah. So the auditor basically, I mean, there’s three or four primary functions. I like to basically start with, we’re the watchdog on behalf of taxpayers with respect to fiscal responsibility across the state of North Carolina. So the bread and butter is fiscal audits. We also audit information systems. On the flip side of that, or in addition to that, we do efficiency and effectiveness audits of government, as well as taking a look at program results.

Kaliner: Is that something that you go through every single jurisdiction, every municipality all the time? Or do you pick and choose? Is it a complaint-driven process?

Boliek: Well, it’s a combination there, Pete. I mean, I’ve got a roughly 160-person office. So we have some statutory mandated audits, like we just wrapped up an audit of the Department of Transportation‘s cash position. We also wrapped up our portion of the state financial statement. Have to do the universities, most of the community colleges. That’s sort of bread and butter. And then it is sort of up to the discretion of the auditor as to where you go from there. So we’ve got some priorities that we’re going to put front and center on behalf of taxpayers.

Kaliner: And you’ve already talked about one of them very publicly, the DMV, which I don’t know why you would need to look at them. I mean, my interactions have always been very quick. I’m just kidding. No, I had to drive an hour outside of Charlotte to get an appointment to get a driver’s license renewal. Yeah. Yeah, it’s like the whole… So what are you looking at in the DMV? And how long of a window are you looking at for it to take to do an audit of that operation?

Boliek: Yeah, so the DMV audit, we are going to take a look at the finances of the DMV because I do believe that in all of the audits, really makes a lot of sense, Pete, to come with a set of data to back up your conclusions. And we want to be able to tell a story. You know, how are these agencies impactful to North Carolinians? And we want those audits to be impactful. And the way those audits can be most impactful is to tell a story. But we need that data to back it up. So we’re going to do a floor-to-ceiling audit of the DMV and look at effectiveness, efficiency, and the results. You know, in 2018, Auditor Wood actually did an audit of the DMV. And in the recommendations from that audit were, first and foremost, that the DMV needed a system of metrics to measure their effectiveness. To date, they’ve never instituted that system of metrics. So we’re going to start there. You know, I had someone tell me one time, “Well, I don’t know what good a book report is going to do to help make the DMV better.” Well, you know, a real data-driven audit is more than a book report. And we’re going to give solid, common-sense recommendations to both the legislature and the governor on how to fix it.

Kaliner: Right, because the auditor can’t impose those things onto the DMV, right? It would have to be legislative. They’d have to write law, I assume, and the governor would have to sign it.

Boliek: Well, you’d have to have either legislation or you could have, you know, the governor runs the DMV. Governor Stein has said that he wants to work across the aisle, so I’m going to give him the opportunity.

Kaliner: So, yeah, I will say, here’s one area, and I don’t know if this would even be part of your operation, but I could tell you that, like, when I went to the DMV and I got a license, I upgraded to the real ID, I had moved into a house, and we weren’t…it wasn’t even a real address until, like, the house got built, you know? And so it took a long time, so I had to go in with, like, a deed and, like, here’s the purchase and this property does exist. And at that point, they were like, “Do you want to upgrade to real ID?” I said, “Yes.” I got the new photo taken, all of that. And then a year later, I got to go back in for an in-person renewal. And I said, “Well, I already sat for this last year, got my picture taken, upgraded to the real ID.” And they said, “No, that counts as a duplicate license.” It’s like, how is that a duplicate license?

Boliek: Pete, you just recanted the same story my wife went through.

Kaliner: Oh, really?

Boliek: Because she got halfway through it, took an entire morning off, and she’s a business person, took an entire morning off, went through the DMV, got an appointment, and they actually got her in. And she came back home and told me later, you know, halfway or three-quarters of the way through, I was thinking, “Why in the heck does Dave want to audit the DMV?” And then they binged her at the end with, “Oh, yeah, and by the way, you’re going to have to come back next year and renew your license in person.” I mean, you’re never more bona fide than when you’re getting the real ID. Why not start it from there?

Kaliner: Right. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So, you’re already aware of that issue, right? Make your wife happy.

Boliek: I guess I get that one right straight from home.

Kaliner: Yeah, there you go. All right. So, you got the DMV. So, let’s talk a little bit what’s going on in Western North Carolina. I saw you put out a statement after the governor did his five executive orders, which I was happy to see him do that. He went to Asheville as soon as he took office, did five executive orders. So, what is the role that the auditor’s office plays in the recovery efforts out in Western North Carolina?

Boliek: So, it’s a good question. Now, the legislature in the latest piece of legislation from December, Senate Bill 382, actually mandated that the auditor do a little bit more than just looking back at what happens to state tax dollars and has asked the auditor’s office to do more of a periodic audit, and I liken it to tracking dollars. And so, Governor Stein has set up a new agency called GROW to handle Western North Carolina, but we put a team together on January the 2nd, and we’ve already begun getting data, and we’re hoping in the next week or so to be able to ramp up a regular reporting feature on the state auditor’s website to track those dollars. So, that hasn’t been announced yet, so I’m giving you a little bit of news there, Pete. I think it’s really important that we don’t relive what happened about three months ago when the head of NCORR, the previous agency that ran Eastern North Carolina’s disaster money, appeared in front of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, and it was a dumpster fire. I mean, $35 million, we don’t know where it is. Oh, and by the way, we need another $221 million to finish projects that are in the hopper. And that’s a six-year run on that, and I’ve committed to keeping track of this stuff so we don’t get to a six-year period and we’re wondering what the heck happened to multiple billions of dollars.

Kaliner: Right, because I think what the leader of that agency, now she has been ousted from her position there, but I think she said, “Oh, we just lost track of the accounting,” or something.

Boliek: Right. Yeah. Really? I mean, you can’t make that up. Yeah. But their entire existence was to keep track of the accounting.

Kaliner: So this new agency, GROWNC, which is the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, and I would submit that merely the creation of this new agency is probably proof that they know that the rebuild NC, or NCORP, was such a colossal disaster that they can’t do that again. And so, so far, I know you say, and you and the Governor said that you wanted to work together on this so far. How is that going?

Boliek: It’s working great.

Kaliner: Good.

Boliek: I mean, I’ve had no pushback from the Governor. He and I both committed to work across the aisle. I feel good about it. As I’ve said to agency heads that I’ve talked to over the last couple of months since I was elected, you ought to really welcome the state auditor to come in and give you some advice, and give you some look at the numbers, take a look under your hood, and I think we can actually be helpful. Now, when there’s waste, fraud, and abuse, we’re going to put the hammer down, Pete.

Kaliner: So let me, I got to ask you about the elections issue. That was part of Senate Bill 382. So now, under that law, you will be in charge of appointing the members of the Board of Elections, right? And so, like, how are you ramping up for that responsibility?

Boliek: Well, I mean, first of all, we’re making space within our agency to move the Board of Elections over. So the Board of Elections, we will be in charge of managing the budget and sort of those operational issues for the Board of Elections. My primary responsibility will be to appoint the state board and the chairs of each Board of Elections in each North Carolina county.

Kaliner: Do you get, does your office get into the, I don’t want to say into the weeds, but are you getting, like, into the schedule of list maintenance, the voter roll maintenance issues? You know, because there’s, I mean, that’s, I think, part of the problem with the Supreme Court race, for example, is like there, it seems like administrative problems have persisted inside the Board of Elections for decades. Is that something that now becomes under your purview?

Boliek: Yeah, we believe it will. I had talked about this on the campaign trail, and that is making those voter rolls more accurate. You know, it seems to me, and again, I’ve heard from county officials that they’re, you know, they need more time or whatever, but, you know, in between elections, that’s a really good time to go ahead and take a look at these entries to make sure that we have all the proper information and to make sure people are properly registered. I mean, there’s 60,000 names I know that Judge Griffin is, got up for question in front of the Supreme Court. It seems to me that over a two-year period before the midterm, we could make phone calls, send letters, reach out to all of those 60,000 people to make sure that their information is correct, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Kaliner: Yeah, it seems like a common sense approach. We are out of time. You’re welcome back anytime. We appreciate you joining us today, Auditor Dave Boliek. Auditor Dave, thanks for your time, sir, and congratulations on the victory, and good luck to you, sir.

Boliek: Appreciate it. Just getting back from D.C. Had a fantastic weekend up with President Trump. Oh, sounds good. All right, well, safe travels to you, and glad you got back all right and had a good time. Did you see him dance with the sword?

Boliek: I did. That was at the Commander’s Ball. He was having a good time. He always has a good time at rallies.

Kaliner: Yeah, no, it was quite the sight. I got a chuckle out of it. I appreciate your time, sir. Thanks so much for joining us.

Boliek: Yes, sir.

Kaliner: All right, take care. All right, that is the Auditor of North Carolina, Dave Boliek.

The preceding interview originally appeared on January 21, 2025 at the WBT Radio’s website and the transcription is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.