Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), left, detailed his proposals to improve the Virginia Economic Development Partnership as Virginia Secretary of Commerce Todd Haymore listens at the Capitol in Richmond on Monday. (Steve Helber/AP)

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Monday proposed reforms for Virginia’s economic development arm, a move that follows a scathing government audit of the ­public-private agency that is central to his administration’s top priority.

McAuliffe announced that he will introduce legislation in the General Assembly session that convenes next month to strengthen oversight, accountability and management of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

“The legislation we are announcing today will strengthen weaknesses in the management of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and put the organization on the path to become the economic driver for our Commonwealth we know it can be,” McAuliffe said in a written statement.

“Presently, VEDP is run by a volunteer board that is responsible for making decisions about the organization’s future, including hiring its CEO,” he said. “That situation can lead to a lack of accountability when difficulties arise, like those we have seen presented in a recent report by the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission.”

McAuliffe said that while leaders at the agency have made some recent changes aimed at better protecting taxpayer dollars, more structural changes are needed.

In November, the legislative commission found many faults with the agency, which is funded almost entirely with taxpayer funds. Established in 1995 to boost economic development in the commonwealth, the VEDP markets Virginia to prospective businesses, promotes international trade and administers economic development grants.

“VEDP is not an efficiently or effectively managed organization,” the audit said. “VEDP lacks many of the fundamental components of organizational management needed to operate efficiently and effectively and to coordinate well with external entities.”

The audit found that the agency lacks key elements, including “a deliberate strategy to meet its statutory responsibilities, adequate operational guidance for staff to carry out their job responsibilities, effective accountability mechanisms, useful performance measures, reliable data upon which to evaluate performance, and effective coordination with external partners.”

One bright spot: The audit praised the VEDP’s success in promoting international exports, saying its programs in that area are held in high regard. McAuliffe has played a hands-on role in that realm, leading a string of overseas trade missions to Europe, Asia and other important markets. He frequently says he is Virginia’s best-traveled governor.

[McAuliffe embarks on whirlwind European tour]

While the problems at the agency were not unique to the McAuliffe administration, they were an embarrassment to the governor because he has made economic development the cornerstone of his governorship.

The findings have provided Republicans with fodder to criticize the governor and the Democrat running to succeed him next year, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

Northam joined McAuliffe in Richmond on Monday to announce legislation intended to address the problems. One would restructure the VEDP board to increase oversight by making the state’s commerce secretary its chairman.

“In addition to building a strategic plan and better coordinating economic development across state agencies, we need to create a culture of accountability,” Northam said.

It also would give governors a majority of board appointments within the first two years of their terms and give them more flexibility in appointments by scrapping a requirement that every congressional district be represented.

Another proposed bill would require the VEDP’s chief executive to work with the governor at the start of his or her term to develop a comprehensive economic development policy.

Ed Gillespie, one of Northam’s GOP rivals in the 2017 governor’s race, criticized the proposals.

“The McAuliffe-Northam proposal is too little, too late,” Gillespie said. “Their reforms tinker around the edges of VEDP operations and fail to address the more fundamental issues with the administration’s approach to economic development. And these modest changes come three years into the administration and only after an embarrassing public report. This legislative package, like most of the McAuliffe-Northam economic strategy, was designed to be a press release, not a solution.”

McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy dismissed Gillespie’s criticism.

“Empty political rhetoric and vague promises to ‘have a plan later’ are not a replacement for actual leadership,” Coy said. As the commission report states, “VEDP has been in need of reform since it was created five governors and 21 General Assembly sessions ago. Governor McAuliffe is determined not to let another one go by without fixing it.”