New auditor speaks at Bay Waveland Yacht Club

New Mississippi State Auditor Shad White gave his first speech since being appointed at the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club.

It’s been a busy few days for new State Auditor Shad White. After the 32-year-old was sworn in, he went to work immediately by catching up on confidential information about existing audit investigations. “Really, that has been the first order of business, to get a handle on all the investigations that are going on in the State Auditor’s Office right now.”

Two of the auditor’s major concerns are cyberspace and education. White tells News 25 he grew up in the public school system all his life, earning a undergrad degree at the University of Mississippi, a master’s degree at the University of Oxford, and a law degree from Harvard. “I care a lot about money flowing to kids and flowing to teachers as much as it possibly can. So, we are going to make that a focus over the course of the next few months and get the office moving in the right direction.”

Auditor White plans to continue what former auditor Stacey Pickering started such as cracking down on those who haven’t turned in a financial audit in years. “That’s the kind of example of these little pockets of very serious problems that are going on in Mississippi. I have frankly had enough of reading about that.”

Before taking the state auditor job, White was the director of the Conservative Mississippi Justice Institute. He also worked under Governor Phil Bryant as a policy director in 2015. Governor Bryant wanted an auditor who did not have political relationships with officials and institutions he will audit. “If you have a ton of friendships and a ton of back slapping relationships with a lot of the folks you need to audit, sometimes you can turn a blind eye. I firmly believe in being fair to everybody, but there are folks who are in this for the wrong reasons and those folks are going to be held accountable,” said White.