Auditing the DoS

I just can't fathom an auditor performing an audit of the military. Here is an audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction. The first sentence in the summary is a statement that the work was impaired by the lack of cooperation of the Department of State. Auditors had to write the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to gain cooperation. And then auditors found "only a relatively small portion of program funds—about 12%—will be used to pay for advising, mentoring, and developing the Iraqi police forces." The rest of the funding was for security and life support. The auditors state "Without specific goals, objectives, and performance measures, the PDP could become a “bottomless pit” for U.S. dollars intended for mentoring, advising, and training the Iraqi police forces." Where else could you find this type of information? And what must it be like to do audit work in this climate ?

I can't imagine

I am signed up for several Google alerts relating to auditing and audits. One such alert recently took me on an interesting journey. The original alert took me to this website (?) blog (?) about the findings of an auditor in Zimbabwe. According to the About Us page, "Zimbabwe Metro online (zimbabwemetro.com) is an aggregated web log that covers a wide-range of topics, including sections devoted to politics, entertainment, media, lifestyle and business.We also feature hyperlinks to various news sources and columnists. Our roster of bloggers includes many people from Zimbabwe’s politicians to our extensive network of prominent writers. We are ranked the most most visited news weblog on Zimbabwe News by Alexa Internet."

Intrigued that an auditor would be exposing government corruption to such a degree, I tried to do some research. Using the NY Times search function I discovered an interesting archive of news stories about Zimbabwe. It seems that the president of Zimbabwe won a run off election and was inaugurated to his sixth term in June 2008. His opponent withdrew from the race because "state-sponsored enforcers were beating and killing his followers." More recent articles document a cholera epidemic and devastating economic and agricultural policies that leave the population starving. In February 2009, the president's opponent was sworn in as the prime minister to try and bring unity to the government. And just yesterday President Obama presented the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to publicly recognize Women of Zimbabwe Arise, or Woza, a grassroots effort to speak out against injustice in the country.

And in all of this an auditor is operating. I tried to search for a website for the auditor or the audit but was unsuccessful.

Truly strange

I have worked as a local government auditor for three different governments for the past nineteen years. Governments always struggle with the administration and management of contracts. Every audit that examines contracting always will find room for improvement. But this is as bad as it gets. Jefferson County, Alabama is unable to determine how many contracts it has that are current. Lacking adequate controls, they also don't have a contract compliance officer or an internal auditor. Faced with a budget crisis, the local County commissioners don't have accurate information to make decisions.

But even stranger, this news account, just four days later describes another crisis in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, the County seat. The City Council is requesting an audit from the Alabama State Auditor's Office to determine how much money the City has in the bank. The mayor claims the City will end the year with a $13 million surplus, but the City's financial accounting software shows the City is running a deficit.

Two great audit areas - contracts and the accuracy of financial information.

Bus audit creates discussion about purpose

Here is an interesting news article about an audit of the transit system in Houston. A state audit has caused a debate about what the purpose of the transit system is. Is it efficiency? One metric considered was the operating ratio or the percent of the cost that is paid for by the fare. Increasing this metric requires reducing or eliminating routes that serve lower numbers of people. But then this raises the issue of equity or whether the transit authority's purpose is serving the low income, those who have no other means of transportation. Quality can be measured in another way - the comfort of the trip. Some think that using that performance measure light rail transportation is better than bus routes - because light rail is quieter, more comfortable, and more reliable.

A very interesting discussion and illustrates the value of an audit. Audits can improve the quality of the public discussion. This article reminds me of the debate that is taking place in my own jurisdiction, but without the benefit of an audit to clarify issues. See here, here, and here.

Audit snow?

Recently, Portland was immobilized for several days because of heavy snow. Government was unable to keep motorists moving and the bus system gradually was reduced to a few routes. The rationale is that Portland so rarely has snow that it does not make sense to invest heavily in snow removal equipment. Some mock Portlanders for overreacting. A reporter wondered what Barack Obama would think about Portland. Maybe there should be an audit.

Audit idea

Here is an idea for an audit that I hadn't thought about. Seems like it would be relatively easy and might have benefit.