(a)    The Commission shall adopt guidelines for financial record keeping and the preparation of annual audit reports by the community colleges. The community colleges shall comply with the guidelines of the Commission.

(b)    Each community college in the State shall have an annual audit of its books of accounts, accounting procedures and principles, and other fiscal and operational methods and procedures in accordance with guidelines as prescribed by the Commission. A copy of the audit report, together with the related management letter, shall be submitted to the Commission for review and assessment and to the Legislative Auditor within 90 days of the close of each fiscal year. The Commission shall ascertain that the community colleges are audited in accordance with this section.

(c)    The Commission shall evaluate audit reports and related management letters for purposes of determining material weaknesses and assessing which recommendations should be considered for implementation. If a community college establishes to the satisfaction of the Commission that a recommendation in an audit report or related management letter has been satisfactorily addressed and should not be implemented, then the Commission shall notify the Legislative Auditor of the reasons for not implementing the recommendation. If the Commission finds that satisfactory progress has not been made toward correcting recurring material weaknesses or implementing any other audit recommendations which the Commission deems appropriate, then with due notice to the community college, the Commission shall direct the State Comptroller to withhold aid payments or any portion of aid payments due a college under this article.

(d)    The Legislative Auditor may upon the Legislative Auditor’s own initiative perform the required annual audits. However, notification of such intent must be given to each affected community college before the start of the fiscal year to be audited.

(e)    The Legislative Auditor may be directed to undertake special audits of any community college by the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee at State expense.

(f)    An audit performed by an official auditor of any county or Baltimore City approved by the Commission shall satisfy the annual audit requirement if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.

(g)    The cost of the annual audit required by this section is the responsibility of the community college.

(h)    Each year the Legislative Auditor shall submit a report to the Commission and, subject to § 2–1257 of the State Government Article, the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee and the Executive Director of the Department of Legislative Services, on the results of the annual and special community college audits.

(i)    Nothing contained in this section may be construed to prohibit a periodic or special audit by an official auditor of any county providing funds for a community college.