23.150.  Oversight division organized, duties — oversight director and staff employed, qualifications. — 1.  The committee on legislative research shall organize an oversight division to prepare fiscal notes and to conduct program evaluations, including program evaluations involving budget transparency and accountability.

  2.  Within the limits of the appropriations made for this division, the committee may regularly employ and fix the compensation of the director of the oversight division and other personnel as it deems necessary.  The director shall be qualified by training and experience to conduct such evaluations, and he or she shall be directly responsible for those activities.  The director of the oversight division, with the consent of the joint committee, may employ personnel necessary to carry out the duties prescribed in this chapter.  Persons employed to work in the oversight division shall be professional persons possessing a wide knowledge and demonstrated expertise in governmental programming and financial planning, in conducting program review evaluations and analytic studies, and of federal, state, and local government budgetary processes, laws and regulations of the state of Missouri.