Auditor Independence

The story continues out of Los Angeles of the battle between the City Controller and City Attorney as reported in an earlier post. The language is getting quite strong out of the City Attorney’s Office. A spokesman is quoted as saying that the city attorney is willing to have his workers' compensation unit reviewed by an independent auditor, but he objects to having a "politician" conduct the audit.

I have always thought that being elected gives auditors a “leg up” on independence. Government Auditing Standards which guide us all, state that auditors must maintain independence “so that their opinions, findings, conclusions, judgments, and recommendations will be impartial and viewed as impartial…” The standards then go on to define what organizational independence is. Audit organizations where the head is directly elected by voters of the jurisdiction being audited are presumed to be independent. Auditors though are cautioned to avoid even the appearance of impairments to independence.