The Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-215 et seq., often abbreviated as KORA) requires that most records held by government agencies be made available upon request. There are exceptions: information on security measures, criminal investigations, and bidders’ financial data are just a few of the kinds of records that KORA says an agency need not make public. In addition, most records containing personal information on identifiable individuals are not open records.

Some kinds of records, such as tax or medical records, are confidential under state or federal law. Other records are discretionarily closed, because KORA gives the agency that holds the records discretion in deciding whether to make them public. For example, libraries and museums covered by KORA have leeway in publicly identifying their donors.

Records Held by Legislative Post Audit

Legislative Post Audit has several kinds of records:

• Audit reports. With very few exceptions (mainly dealing with computer security issues), the Division’s completed audit reports are public documents and are freely distributed, including on our website (www.kansas.gov/postaudit). There is no need to make an open-records request for one of our reports. We’ll be happy to send you the link to the online report, or put a paper copy in the mail to you.
• Audit workpapers. Workpapers for an audit are the documentation, summaries, and analyses that form the basis of the report. While the audit project is under way, workpapers—including preliminary drafts of the audit report—are closed records and may not be viewed or copied by anyone outside Legislative Post Audit (K.S.A. 45-221(a)(20)). After the audit project is completed and the report issued, the majority of workpapers for any audit are open records available for public inspection. Some, however, are not. By law, Post Audit has access to all records, confidential or otherwise, held by State agencies. The Act places the same duties of confidentiality on Post Audit as on the agency supplying the data. Therefore, not all of the information that supports our audit findings can be viewed by the public. In some cases, we may be able to redact confidential elements (taxpayer names, for example), and still provide you with the balance of the requested document.
• Correspondence. Some correspondence is public and some is not. Transmittal letters, requests for information, and other routine communications generally are open records. Correspondence between Post Audit staff and legislators, however, generally is not subject to disclosure under KORA unless it’s already been made public (K.S.A. 45-221(a)(22).
• Bid documents. Legislative Post Audit hires audit firms to conduct various financial audits on the Division’s behalf. Bidders for these audit contracts submit information on their qualifications, finances, costs, and so forth. KORA allows us to keep draft bid specifications closed until they are issued, and allows us to keep the bids sealed until they are all opened and a bid has been accepted (K.S.A. 45-221(a)(27 and 28).
• Administrative records. Legislative Post Audit keeps various kinds of internal records dealing with its budget, expenditures, contracts, and personnel. In general, agency financial information is public. Most individually identifiable personnel information, however, is protected. Under KORA, performance ratings or other individual records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment need not be open for inspection, except for name, position title, compensation, and length of service (K.S.A. 45-221(a)(4)).

Requesting Records from Legislative Post Audit

Access to any Post Audit record not made confidential by law or closed by Post Audit under the provisions of KORA may be requested in writing from the Division, either on paper or by email.

You must provide us with your name and address, and a detailed description of the desired records. You may review the records at our office (many records are electronic and may be viewed on a computer monitor), or you may request copies.

In either case, when we receive your request we will provide an acknowledgement and a quote for the cost of the records. KORA allows agencies to charge for the staff time and other resources needed to fulfill open-records requests, and in most cases Legislative Post Audit will charge members of the public as shown below:

Charges related to inspecting audit working papers:

• Staff Time:
  • Less than 1 hour: Free
  • More than 1 hour: $20/hour
• Paper copies:
• Fewer than 50 pages: Free
• More than 50 pages: $0.25/page (all pages)
• Electronic copies
  • may be emailed in PDF format (direct download onto a flash drive or other media isn’t permitted)
  • Disks: $3.00 per CD-R or DVD-R disk (1st disk is free)

The records fee is payable in advance by cash, personal check, or cashier’s check.

If we can’t provide the requested records within three business days of your request, we will provide you with an explanation and our best estimate of when the records would be available.

Records requests must be in writing. Please send your request to:

Records Custodian
Legislative Post Audit
800 SW Jackson St, Ste. 1200
Topeka KS 66612

or email your request to rick.riggs@lpa.ks.gov.