NC Council of State & Executive Branch 2025 in Review – Part 3: State Auditor Dave Boliek

Part 3: State Auditor Dave Boliek

Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. Today, we’re continuing our series on the top 2025 accomplishments from key executive branch and Council of State agencies, focusing here on State Auditor Dave Boliek.

We’ll get right to it.

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The state auditor has always commanded some level of media attention. After all, the office’s job is to examine whether state programs are accomplishing their missions efficiently and effectively. When they’re not, it tends to make news.

But the potential to make more of the post – not to transform it, necessarily, but to shift into a higher gear – has always been there. In 2025, State Auditor Dave Boliek maintained the office’s technocratic soul while adding flavors of “the people’s watchdog” to the mix. It’s a potent formula. 

When Boliek first took office, he described his agency as a “sleeping giant.” Several months into the job, he said, “I believe that giant’s waking up.”

Boliek and his team have gone after high-profile agencies whose scrutiny has an everyman appeal, most notably the DMV. His office issued a comprehensive performance audit and information systems audit of the division in August, finding that wait times are up and staff morale is down. “Our audit team has worked hard to find opportunities where the DMV can course correct and effectively serve North Carolina citizens,” Boliek said at the time.

He also scrutinized municipalities, which seem ripe for further oversight. An audit of the City of Whiteville, for example, found that officials far outspent their means. And a review of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools detailed “a series of poor financial decisions that contributed to the school district’s estimated $46 million budget deficit.”

Even as Boliek’s office issued 82 reports in 2025, he also absorbed the State Board of Elections under his remit. Doomsday predictions quickly followed. 

Gov. Josh Stein said the dismissal of his legal efforts to block the move “posed a threat to democracy and the rule of law.” UNC law professor Gene Nichol claimed Republican North Carolina officials are “pioneers in constitutional transgression.” Their core argument was that it’s constitutional for one executive branch office to manage the Board of Elections, but unconstitutional for another to do so.

The doomsday predictions did not come true. Democracy, as it turns out, still functions in North Carolina.

Boliek also created a new “Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency” to examine agency spending and utility across state government. As part of that effort, the Office of State Auditor website now features two dashboards: one that tracks lapsed salaries in state agencies, and another that tabulates Hurricane Helene expenditures.

Boliek advanced these programmatic efforts while launching a host of other initiatives, including business roundtable events around the state, new public service awards, and even an audit of his own office to “lead by example.”

All of this work makes the Office of State Auditor more accessible to regular North Carolinians. As we wrote last year, “Boliek is quickly restoring relevance to an office once dismissed as obscure, and North Carolinians are paying attention.”

In a year when many North Carolinians are rightly skeptical of government, Boliek has shown what effective oversight can look like when it’s disciplined, transparent, and focused on results. He has proven that a dogged auditor who is persistent, credible, and willing to ask uncomfortable questions can indeed attract public interest.

The Office of State Auditor may never be flashy, but under Boliek, it is certainly awake. And for taxpayers who expect their government to function competently, that awakening is very welcome.