The county provides the ambulances and an annnual supplement to our EMS provider(a contract we inherited from the city pursuant to an intergovermental agreement).
There is no authorization in the agreement for the city or county to audit the books of the EMS provider. During a budget workshop today, wherein the EMS provider was asking for an increase in the annual suuplement, we asked for permission to perform an outside audit.....his answer was an emphatic NO!
Is there authority for the county to force him to allow the audit absent contractual authorization?
He operates the service with our equipment and the supplement, but he keeps the profits derived from the business.
Any thoughts other than to find another provider who won't bite the hand that feeds it?

This is public money so he gets the increase when you get the look at the books.

I suggested that previously....but as you know, some concepts are to straightforward and simple for commissioners to understand!

The job of the elected officials is to be good stewards of the public funds. To be a good steward of public funds, you must spend them wisely, and account for every dollar. You may want to remind your commissioners of that fact (as filing time for elections is around the corner). No one is saying the EMS shouldn't get a raise, but before you agree he needs more money, you should know what he is actually needing.

If your county provides the equipment, and the contractor simply provides the warm body/bodies to operate it, there would appear to be a pretty good argument that the EMS service is a county institution "maintained at public expense." If you're comfortable with that, your commissioners court has authority under section 115.031(a)(4), Local Government Code, to order the independent audit. I suppose you could also suggest that such reticence about how public money is being spent could net the provider a grand jury subpoena for the records, plus a lot of really bad press.