Sometimes an auditor’s perspective, outsider status, and pursuit of answers can produce surprising and important outcomes for the public.
People like scapegoats, and sometimes audit findings can encourage them to thump someone. Even though the blame may be difficult to assign, there are some elected officials, reporters, and bloggers who want to attack someone—the agency head, the program manager, or “government bureaucrats.” Sometimes the biggest barrier to solving a Read more
I have always harbored this comic book image of federal, state, and local auditors banding together to fight against mismanagement and entropy, like DC Comics’ League of Justice or Marvel’s Avengers. After all these years, despite watching a few of those fantasy movies, that performance audit scenario has faded. We Read more
State law required an audit of an agency with the mission of restoring Oregon’s watersheds and salmon. The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) had been spending a share of lottery funds for over a decade toward its mission when we took on an audit of their program. The restoration mission Read more
Today, I see East Portland still afflicted by the concerns raised in an audit from thirty-five years ago. The very first audit I worked on reported the financial impacts of Portland’s annexation efforts. In the early 1980s the city initiated an effort to extend its boundary to add about 125,000 Read more
You’ve heard the old saw that those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it. The same goes for audits. Ignore our recommendations and the waste, fraud, or risk exposure will continue. Auditors are historians. We study the past, gather evidence, make causal connections, and document our research, but Read more