Jon Hawles, director of quality control in the auditor’s office, told members of a House oversight panel that Robert Showers, who had overseen the audit of Hawley’s former office, was removed about two weeks ago in order to eliminate the “appearance” of bias. The personnel move came after Hawley — now the junior U.S. Senator for Missouri — raised questions about the fairness of the yet-to-be-released audit.

Hawley, a Republican, defeated Democrat McCaskill in 2018.

“I can’t recall an instance that that’s occurred at the audit director level,” Hawles said, noting the unusual nature of Showers’ removal.

He said the office doesn’t inquire about an employee’s political beliefs when they are hired. He said there are checks and balances to ensure an impartial end product.

“The key with any audit report is the results — findings, conclusions, recommendations — have to be based on the evidence that’s found,” Hawles said.

Questions by the GOP-controlled Legislature come as Galloway, a Democrat, ramps up a challenge to Republican Gov. Mike Parson in the November election.

Hawley earlier this month published an email chain in which Pamela Allison, an audit manager, said she would “beef up” a section of the Hawley audit that dealt with the office’s and/or Hawley’s use of “personal email/personal calendar.”

The email, Hawley said, was supposed to be shared internally among audit staff, but instead was inadvertently shared with the attorney general’s office.

In the email to an attorney general’s office staffer, Allison said: “I’m thinking I’ll just drop the confidentiality paragraph in the report and beef up the personal email/personal calendar section.”

One minute later, she told the staffer: “Please disregard that last email.”

“This is unbelievable,” Hawley said on Twitter on Jan. 15. “Here Galloway lead auditor discusses CHANGING & manipulating the audit to make it more critical of my office or me.”

Rep. Robert Ross, chairman of the House Special Committee on Government Oversight, called a hearing on Hawley’s allegations last week.

The state auditor performs closeout audits of statewide offices when an officeholder departs. Hawley resigned as attorney general in January 2019, the same month he was sworn in as the U.S. Senate’s youngest member.

Galloway faced questions by a member of the House Budget Committee on Tuesday as she presented her office’s proposed spending plan for next fiscal year.

Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, asked if she was aware of the email chain in question.

“I’m aware of those,” Galloway said. “We take it very seriously. Under the law, I am not at liberty to discuss an audit before it is being released. I would say that judgment should be withheld until the full audit is released and you have a chance to review the entirety of the audit and the responses.”

When pressed whether the email gave Galloway “any cause for concern,” Galloway said, “It does not.”

“So you found nothing inappropriate in the language used in those emails?” Deaton asked.

“Again, I would ask you to wait until the entirety of the audit and it will become clear,” she said. “It does not give me pause.”

“We take the allegations made by Senator Hawley seriously,” Galloway added. “They will be fully addressed when the audit report is fully released.”

She said her office’s reports go through “multiple levels of review, which includes a quality-control review.”

On Monday, Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, called for an independent review of the auditor’s office.

“The Auditor’s findings and recommendations only carry weight when people believe in the impartiality and professionalism of their work,” Schatz said in a statement.

Galloway said Tuesday the Legislature had audited her office in 2016 and 2018. In 2017, she said the office underwent a “peer review,” in which outside auditors assessed the agency’s procedures.