The state’s 11 district attorneys today said they welcomed a pledge by Democratic and Republican state auditor candidates to audit their defense counterparts’ skyrocketing budgets and affirmed their own commitments to fiscal transparency.

“We were heartened to learn that both candidates for state auditor would review the financial schemes that led to runaway costs at the Committee for Public Counsel Services,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. “We’ve always operated under that scrutiny and our finances are an open book. The system currently in place, though, provides a blank check and no oversight to private attorneys billing CPCS and the public for millions of dollars each year above and beyond what they earn in private practice.”

The state’s district attorneys yesterday made public their call to legislators and gubernatorial candidates to address the systemic flaws plaguing Massachusetts’ bar advocate program. Under that program, CPCS – the state agency that provides legal representation to indigent defendants – farms out 90% of its cases to thousands of private attorneys who bill taxpayers by the hour.

For eight straight years, CPCS has failed to live within its budget, leading to total spending of $168 million in fiscal year 2010 – almost double the $92 million allocated to state prosecutors for the same fiscal year. While prosecutors handle 100% of the state’s criminal cases, CPCS is responsible for only about two-thirds of that number. On average, state prosecutors carry more than 400 cases each, while CPCS staff attorneys carry about 100.

Democratic auditor candidate Suzanne Bump and Republican auditor candidate Mary Z. Connaughton have both expressed interest in conducting performance audits of CPCS to determine how it spends taxpayer money.

“We welcome that review and, just as importantly, what the candidates’ pledges represent in terms of future fiscal responsibility,” Conley said. “The level and rate of overspending at CPCS should have set off alarms for Beacon Hill and watchdog groups statewide. We just can’t sustain this bloated and inefficient system as prosecutors are laid off and furloughed to pay for it.”