Executive Director at Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc.
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area
Executive Director at Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc.
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area
Leslie W. (Les) Merritt, Jr. served as State Auditor of North Carolina from January 2005 until January 2009. He was the first Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to serve as North Carolina's State Auditor. Prior to being elected State Auditor, Merritt was an owner and partner in privately held accounting firms for over twenty years.
Auditing; Accounting.
(Government Relations industry)
May 2009 — Present (7 months)
The Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc. seeks to bring a new level of transparency, accountability and integrity to all levels of American government. The Foundation will accomplish its mission by receiving and independently investigating allegations of corruption in government, providing reports of corruption to investigative journalists, and pro-actively educating government leaders and the general public on the true nature of ethics in government as well as the causes and remedies of public corruption.
(Financial Services industry)
2009 — Present (less than a year)
(Government Agency; Government Administration industry)
January 2005 — January 2009 (4 years 1 month)
The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) acts as the Taxpayers' Watchdog for North Carolina.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS/DUTIES AS STATE AUDITOR:
- First CPA to serve as State Auditor of North Carolina.
- Managed an agency with more than 200 employees.
- Member, North Carolina Council of State.
- Member, Local Government Commission.
- Worked to transform the Office of the State Auditor into a more pro-active agency.
- Increased the Office of the State Auditor’s emphasis on performance audits by 50%.
- Reduced a backlog of unfinished investigative audits, some more than three years old, by 76%.
- Launched a new Investigative Task Force to expose fraud, waste and abuse in state government.
- Created a new initiative that trained more than 12,000 personnel from state-funded non-profit and other grant recipients on compliance and reporting issues.
(Accounting industry)
1985 — January 2005 (20 years )
- Worked directly on hundreds of audits.
- Personal and business income tax preparation.
- Estate and financial planning advice and services.
(Government Agency; Government Administration industry)
1994 — 1998 (4 years )
Bachelors , Accounting , 1979
Bachelor's , Economics , 1974
Effective & efficient government; politics; sports.
Former president, Zebulon Elementary School PTA; former president, Zebulon Rotary Club; former president, Zebulon Lions Club; former director, Zebulon Chamber of Commerce., Republican Party
Elected State Auditor of North Carolina in 2004.