Wis. Stat. § 16.53 — WI Code / Chapter 16 / Section 16.53
Preaudit procedure.
Status: in_force

The department of administration shall preaudit claims in accordance with the following procedures:

(1) Claims against state.

(a) Audit. The secretary is responsible for auditing claims against the state, when payment thereof out of the state treasury is authorized by law, except as provided in ss. 16.77 (1) and 20.920 . The audit may be on a sample basis in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. The secretary may delegate in writing the audit function to the head of any agency under terms and standards established by the secretary. The delegation shall be by mutual agreement and notice of the agreement shall be reported to the state auditor. If the secretary finds, through sample auditing, review of procedures, controls and any other audit techniques the secretary deems necessary, that the delegated function is not being performed according to the established auditing standards, the secretary shall in writing withdraw the delegated authority. In this subsection, “agency” has the meaning given under s. 16.52 (7) .

(b) Payrolls. Payrolls, to be entitled to audit, shall be certified by the proper officers who shall set forth the nature of the services rendered by each person named therein.

(c) Other claims. Unless otherwise provided by law, all other claims to be entitled to audit shall:

1. Specify the nature and particulars thereof on an official or original invoice.

2. Conform with statutory provisions and be necessarily incurred in the performance of duties required by the state service.

4. Include the claimant’s affidavit, or statement under the penalties of perjury, setting forth that all items of traveling expenses were incurred in the performance of duties required by the public service, and that the amount charged for transportation or for other expenses incident to travel was actually paid out and that no part of such transportation was had upon a free pass or otherwise free of charge. The blank form of such travel voucher shall be prescribed by the secretary.

6. Exclude items of expenditure incurred while traveling outside the state by any officer or employee of any state department or institution thereof unless in the discharge of duties required by the public service.

7. Exclude out-of-state expenses of an officer or employee of any state department or institution except upon the order of the head of that department or institution. The department or institution head may determine whether such requests shall be made individually or periodically. The governor may require periodic reports on out-of-state travel made by the personnel of each state agency with such detail as the governor may desire. The governor, by executive order, may require the governor’s prior approval for out-of-state travel by members of any state department or institution of the executive branch.

9. Be approved by the proper state officer.

10. Exclude items of expenditure incurred by an employee of any state department while permanently located outside the state unless prior approval of the department of administration has been obtained.

(ca) Supervision of expenditures. All departments shall diligently review and supervise the travel expenditures of their employees and may promulgate reasonable rules governing such expenditures. Such rules shall be consistent with the uniform guidelines established under s. 20.916 (8) . Each claim shall be approved by the employee’s appointing authority, as defined in s. 230.03 (4) , or the appointing authority’s authorized representative. The approval shall represent the concurrence with the accuracy, necessity and reasonableness of each expense. Claims so approved shall be audited by the department of administration in accordance with par. (a) .

(cm) Advancement of travel expenses. The head of a state agency may advance money for travel expenses to employees. Any travel advance shall not exceed 80 percent of the estimated expense.

(d) Salaries and benefits; when payable.

1. The secretary, with the approval of the joint committee on employment relations, shall fix the time and frequency for payment of salaries due elective and appointive officers and employees of the state. Except as provided in subd. 5. , as determined under this subdivision, the salaries shall be paid either monthly, semimonthly or for each 2-week period.

2. Costs for benefits under ch. 108 which are paid on an actual basis may be charged to and collected from agencies by the secretary on an estimated or premium basis, credited to appropriate appropriations, and paid from the appropriations on an actual basis. If a billing submitted by the department of workforce development for payment of a specific claim for benefits under s. 108.15 (7) remains unpaid by the agency to whom the billing is submitted for more than 60 days after the billing is transmitted to the agency by the secretary, the secretary may charge the cost of payment of the billing to the proper appropriation of the agency to whom the billing is submitted without authorization of the agency and notwithstanding any pending dispute concerning agency liability. If it is finally determined that an agency is not liable in whole or in part for payment of a billing previously submitted and paid, the secretary shall credit any refund received to the appropriation from which the billing was paid, if it is available for expenditure, or otherwise to the fund from which the billing was paid. Any credit to a sum sufficient appropriation shall be made only to the fund from which the appropriation is made. In addition, the secretary may charge agencies for the department’s costs of estimation, collection and payment of benefits under ch. 108 on a prorated basis in accordance with the percentage of costs attributable to each agency. Service charges shall be paid into the appropriation made under s. 20.505 (1) (ka) .

3. In order to utilize modern accounting methods in processing payrolls, the department may convert and adjust salaries of all state officers and employees so that they are payable in equal payments throughout the year. To this end the secretary may promulgate rules necessary to administer this subdivision.

4. The secretary may promulgate rules pertaining to the administration of earnings garnishment actions under s. 812.42 whenever the state is the garnishee in such actions. In any earnings garnishment action where the judgment debtor is employed by the University of Wisconsin System, the secretary may require the appropriate payroll processing center for the University of Wisconsin System to directly process necessary forms, papers, deductions and checks, share drafts or other drafts in connection with such action.

5. Beginning on April 1, 2025, at the request of the employee, the salary for an employee who provides direct care to residents of a veterans home, as defined in s. 45.01 (12m) , shall be paid on a weekly basis.

(2) Improper invoices. If an agency receives an improperly completed invoice, the agency shall notify the sender of the invoice within 10 working days after it receives the invoice of the reason it is improperly completed. In this subsection, “agency” means an office, department, independent agency, institution of higher education, association, society, or other body in state government created or authorized to be created by the constitution or any law, that is entitled to expend moneys appropriated by law, including the legislature and the courts, but not including an authority created in subch. II of ch. 114 or in ch. 231 , 233 , 234 , 237 , 238 , or 279 .

(3) Examination of claimants. The secretary may examine under oath the claimant or any other person relative to any claim presented against the state, and may require oral or written answers as to any facts relating to the justness of the claim, or as to the liability of the state.

(4) Audit order endorsed on claim; record. The order of the secretary auditing any claim shall be endorsed on or annexed to such claim, shall specify the amount allowed, the fund from which the same is payable, and the law that authorizes payment of such claim out of the treasury; and said order with the claim and all evidence relative thereto shall be filed and preserved in the secretary’s office. The secretary may develop procedures to permit electronic compliance with any requirement under this subsection.

(5) Warrants; what to specify. The secretary shall draw a warrant on the state treasury payable to the claimant for the amount allowed by the secretary upon every claim audited under sub. (1) , except as authorized in s. 16.52 (7) , 20.920 , or 20.929 , specifying from what fund to be paid, the particular law that authorizes the claim to be paid out of the state treasury, and at the secretary’s discretion the post-office address of the payee. No moneys may be paid out of the state treasury under this section otherwise than upon such warrants.

(6) Warrants; signatures. Whenever it is impracticable for the secretary to personally sign warrants issued on the state treasury, the secretary’s name may be signed thereto by one or more persons in the secretary’s department designated by the secretary or by the use of a mechanical device adopted by the secretary for affixing a facsimile signature; and the state treasurer, when written authority and reasons therefor are filed in the office of the state treasurer, shall honor warrants so signed, the same as if signed in person by the secretary, until such authority is revoked in writing.

(7) Certification of boards, evidence of correctness of account. The certificate of the proper officers of the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin System, the department of health services, or the proper officers of any other board or commission organized or established by the state, shall in all cases be evidence of the correctness of any account which may be certified by them.

(9) Transfer of funds appropriated. Whenever an appropriation has been made from the general fund in the state treasury to any other fund therein, the secretary may withhold the transfer of such appropriation or any part thereof from the general fund until the moneys required to pay outstanding claims are duly audited and disbursed. Such authority is not limited to the fiscal year of the appropriation if the liability is properly recognized and recorded.

(10) Priority of claims.

(a) If an emergency arises which requires the department to draw vouchers for payments which will be in excess of available moneys in any state fund, the secretary, after notifying the joint committee on finance under par. (b) , may prorate and establish priority schedules for all payments within each fund, including those payments for which a specific payment date is provided by statute, except as otherwise provided in this paragraph. The secretary shall draw all vouchers according to the preference provided in this paragraph. All direct or indirect payments of principal or interest on state bonds and notes issued under subch. I of ch. 18 and payments due, if any, under an agreement or ancillary arrangement entered into under s. 18.06 (8) (a) relating to any public debt contracted under subchs. I and IV of ch. 18 have first priority. All direct or indirect payments of principal or interest on state notes issued under subch. III of ch. 18 have 2nd priority. No payment having a 1st or 2nd priority may be prorated or reduced under this subsection. All state employee payrolls have 3rd priority. The secretary shall draw all remaining vouchers according to a priority determined by the secretary. The secretary shall maintain records of all claims prorated under this subsection.

(b) Before exercising authority under par. (a) the secretary shall notify the joint committee on finance as to the need for and the procedures under which proration or priority schedules under par. (a) shall occur. If the joint committee on finance has not, within 2 working days after the notification, scheduled a meeting to review the secretary’s proposal, the secretary may proceed with the proposed action. If, within 2 working days after the notification, the committee schedules a meeting, the secretary may not proceed with the proposed action until after the meeting is held.

(c) If the secretary prorates or establishes priority schedules for payments which are to be made to local units of government, he or she shall establish a procedure whereby any local unit of government which can demonstrate that it would be adversely affected by such action of the secretary may appeal to the secretary for a waiver from having its payment prorated or delayed. In establishing this procedure, the secretary shall consider a local unit of government adversely affected if it can demonstrate that the proration or delay would cause a financial hardship because the scheduled payment had been budgeted as a revenue to be available at the scheduled time of payment and the local unit of government would otherwise have insufficient revenues to meet its immediate expenditure obligations.

(e) The authority granted by this subsection may be exercised only after all other possible procedures have been used and are found to be insufficient, including the temporary reallocation of surplus moneys as provided in s. 20.002 (11) .

(11) Interest on delayed payments. Payments, other than payments subject to s. 16.528 , prorated or delayed under sub. (10) which are payable to local units of government shall accrue interest on the payment delay at a rate equal to the state investment fund earnings rate during the period of the payment delay. Payments subject to s. 16.528 prorated or delayed under sub. (10) past the due date shall not accrue interest. In this subsection, “local unit of government” means a county, city, village, town, school district, technical college district or any other governmental entity which is entitled to receive aid payments from this state.

(12) Travel expenses.

(a) In this subsection:

1. “Agency” has the meaning given under sub. (2) .

2. “Employee” means any officer or employee of the state who is entitled to reimbursement for actual, reasonable and necessary expenses.

(b) Each voucher claim for travel expenses shall be approved by the head of the employee’s agency or that person’s designee. Such approval represents concurrence with the necessity and reasonableness of each expense. Such approval shall accompany the travel voucher. The expense voucher shall be audited by the agency financial office and then submitted to the department for final audit before payment.

(c) The department may not approve for payment any travel vouchers which exceed the maximum travel schedule amounts which are established under s. 20.916 (8) , except in unusual circumstances when accompanied by a receipt and full explanation of the reasonableness of such expense.

(d) The department may not approve for payment any travel vouchers which exceed the auto mileage rates set under s. 20.916 (4) (a) and (e) .

(13) Financial services.

(a) In this subsection, “agency” has the meaning given in s. 16.70 (1e) .

(b) The department may charge any agency for accounting, auditing, payroll and other financial services provided to the agency, whether the services are required by law or performed at the agency’s request.

(14) Review of proposed incorporations and annexations. The incorporation review board may prescribe and collect a fee for review of any petition for incorporation of a municipality under s. 66.0203 . The department may prescribe and collect a fee for review of any petition for annexation of municipal territory under s. 66.0217 . The fee shall be paid by the person or persons filing the petition for incorporation or by the person or persons filing the notice of the proposed annexation.

History: 1971 c. 100 s. 23 ; 1971 c. 215 , 261 ; Sup. Ct. Order, 67 Wis. 2d 585, 773 (1975); 1975 c. 39 , 164 , 198 , 397 , 422 ; 1977 c. 29 , 196 , 418 ; 1979 c. 34 , 221 ; 1981 c. 1 , 20 ; 1983 a. 3 , 27 , 192 , 368 ; 1985 a. 29 , 300 ; 1985 a. 332 ss. 15 , 251 (1) ; 1987 a. 399 ; 1989 a. 31 ; 1989 a. 125 ss. 1 , 10 ; 1991 a. 39 , 316 ; 1993 a. 80 , 399 ; 1995 a. 27 ss. 301 , 302 , 9126 (19) , 9130 (4) ; 1997 a. 3 ; 2001 a. 16 ; 2003 a. 33 , 117 , 171 ; 2005 a. 74 , 335 ; 2007 a. 20 ss. 90b , 91 , 9121 (6) (a) ; 2007 a. 97 ; 2009 a. 28 ; 2011 a. 7 , 10 ; 2013 a. 20 ; 2023 a. 206 .