Byrd announces campaign for Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector

TULSA — After more than twenty years working in the office of the State Auditor and Inspector, Cindy Byrd has decided to make a run for the top job.

Gary Jones, the current State Auditor, is term-limited; he’s also running for governor, so Byrd won’t have to face her boss in an election.

She tells KRMG she’s passionate about what she does.

“I have been instrumental in exposing corruption and fraud across the state of Oklahoma in local government,” she said Monday. “I’m very passionate about my job. I know people don’t think of the CPA profession as something that’s passionate, but you can be passionate about numbers - and getting it right.”

Many people, she added, don’t really understand the vital role the office of Auditor and Inspector General fills in shepherding taxpayer dollars.

“The State Auditor’s Office is so important,” she said, “and it is odd that people don’ t know more about it. We are the guardians of the taxpayer dollars of this state. We do audits annually at the state government level on state agencies. We also do those on counties, on district attorneys, emergency medical service districts. We also do special investigative audits whenever we are asked to do those by either the governor, the attorney general’s office, or a district attorney’s office.”

Byrd currently serves as Deputy State Auditor for Local Government Services.

Thus far, no one else has announced they’re running for the office.