Category: Where We Audit

I spent my whole audit career either working for or being an elected auditor. I have no comparable experience answering to a legislative body, but I can talk about occasions in my 30 years when an elected auditor had obvious benefits. Before you label me a politician, you should know that I never foresaw myself… Continue reading On Being an Elected Performance Auditor

I’ve said the same thing many times over the years, yet I cringe when I hear someone say that audits shouldn’t have birthdays. Big findings take time, and arbitrary limits will exclude audit topics with major benefits for the public. Nature agrees: Complex or big creatures require longer gestations, up to seventeen months for some… Continue reading “Oh, why do audits take so long?” everyone laments.

Beyond compliance-testing, I concluded long ago that economic development audits have extremely high audit risks and only produce uncertain benefits. My corporate-speak bottom line is this: economic development spending is giving public dollars to a few business people with the hope that it will enrich the entire community. I look at economic development programs as… Continue reading The Uncertainty of Economic Development Programs

For the past four or five years a bad trend has worsened, and the signs have grown more ominous. My auditing career began in 1985 and I experienced personal professional growth while the field of performance auditing also grew. The combination was like walking up an ascending escalator. Jewel Lansing fought hard in the early… Continue reading In the Down Cycle