Auditor General Almonte to step down Feb. 1

PROVIDENCE – Ernest Almonte, Rhode Island’s longtime auditor general, is leaving government to join the accounting firm DiSanto, Priest & Co. on Feb. 1.
Almonte, who served as the state’s top auditor for 15 years, will become a partner, leading the Warwick firm’s fraud examination and municipal consulting practices.
As auditor general, he was responsible for auditing the the state’s comprehensive annual financial report (worth $7 billion) and the federal single audit (worth $3 billion). He also conducted performance and fraud audits for municipalities and quasi-public agencies.
Almonte also served as chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the national, professional association of CPAs. He continues to serve on the Board as the immediate past-Chairman. In 2005 and again in 2008, Accounting Today named him one of the 100 most influential people in the profession.
From 1982 until 1994, Almonte managed his own CPA firm in Smithfield.
“I’m very excited about the opportunities ahead,” Almonte said. “In the coming months and years, we will see global shifts in regulation and business practices as we restore financial stability. Our profession will play an enormous role in this recovery. Our core values of integrity, objectivity, competence, reliability, independence and accountability will help us navigate this rough terrain, as it has in the past.”