Beth Wood is a long-time public servant with 28 years of auditing experience. The first woman elected to that office, Beth has served as State Auditor since 2009. She previously worked in the State Auditor’s Office for more than a decade and also served in the State Treasurer’s Office. Prior to state government, Beth worked with Rayovac Corporation, as a CPA with McGladrey & Pullen and was the CFO for a North Carolina-based furniture company.

During her prior time in the State Auditor’s Office, Beth was instrumental in bringing the state’s compliance supplements up to federal standards and ensuring that federal grants are being used as intended. She was a leader in redesigning the Auditor’s Office training program to make training more relevant to state auditors’ work. And she helped develop employee evaluations that better reflected the job performance of Auditor’s Office employees.

She taught a variety of professional courses for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants (NCACPA). Beth has taught CPAs across the state and the nation how to audit governmental organizations, including the concept of risk-based auditing. She served on the AICPA Steering Committee for its annual Government and Not for Profit Conference.

Like most natives of rural North Carolina, Beth's first "job" consisted of helping on the family farm. Her family raised tobacco near Cove City in Craven County. After graduating from community college, Beth went to work as a dental assistant, but after a few years decided she wanted to complete a four-year college degree and enter the world of finance.

She put herself through East Carolina University, graduating with a degree in accounting. She completed rigorous testing to become a Certified Public Accountant in 1987.

Accomplishments with a direct impact on the spending of taxpayer dollars:

• Identified numerous poor contracting practices, revealing hundreds of millions of dollars of waste over the last decade.
• Revealed that, for inmate healthcare services provided by local hospitals, NC has been paying almost 5 times more for those services than Medicare or Medicaid would have paid for the same services.
• Discovered that since 1997, the State of North Carolina had been paying for inmate medical care that should be covered by Medicaid. The audit saved the State millions of dollars annually.
• Revealed the revamping of the State’s Medicaid computer system had not been managed properly or efficiently, costing the State millions of taxpayer dollars.
• Revealed the State’s permitting processes do not include complete and accurate data making the tracking of permit processing impossible.
• Revealed that the State is spending 6-10 million dollars a year conducting employee evaluations that are not adequately performed.

Administrative accomplishments within the office of the State Auditor:

• Removed the politics from the Office of the State Auditor’s work.
• Has kept her promise to provide audits and investigations with irrefutable findings
• Appeared before General Assembly with audit results for cases needing legislative action - this is the first time the Auditor’s Office has done so routinely.
• Performed follow-ups on previously performed audits to make sure agency remedies were in place and working. Reported findings to the General Assembly.
• Set training as a priority for State Auditor staff.
• Improved accountability of audits performed by staff.
• Led the redesigning of the Auditor’s Office training program to make training more relevant to state and auditors’ work.
• Helped develop employee evaluations that better reflected the job performance of Auditor’s Office employees.
• Taught North Carolina not-for-profits fiscal management for state grants.