Category: Auditor Qualities

After thirty years of auditing in three entirely different work environments—city, county, and state—I learned far more than I was taught. Continuing professional education is valuable, but  there’s just so much to be learned that can’t fit in all those classes, conferences, and webinars. I also learned that some topics should be taught but aren’t,… Continue reading What I learned without training

I wonder how we arrived at this perplexing state so quickly. It wasn’t long ago that I lamented the declining number of journalists who were holding governments accountable. Now those remaining journalists are finding their news reports and facts being challenged. Similarly, the conclusions of the scientific community are being questioned by nonscientific skeptics. The… Continue reading Trust, these days

A wise auditor told me that we really only ask one question in our audits: “What did you do with the money?” For variety, we apply different inflections, mask the question’s nature with other words, and probe the who, what, why, where and how aspects of the question. But fundamentally we trace money from its… Continue reading Putting the “Grit” in Integrity

I have three questions to ask you about your audit attitude. Have you found that you can generally trust the information that people tell you in the organizations you audit? Do you respect the accomplishments and challenges of the organizations you audit? Do you believe that the organizations you audit can achieve a level of… Continue reading Idealism and Cynicism