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.

Chilling Effect in LA

Previously in this blog, I have written about a lawsuit against the LA Auditor who was trying to audit the worker's compensation program. The lawsuit was filed by the elected City Attorney against the elected Controller. The City Attorney claimed that the Controller had no authority to audit another elected official's program. I made the argument that all roads eventually lead to an elected official, so why would that make a program exempt, and also that audits are auditing the program's performance, not the leadership's. Now it appears that a judge has issued a tentative ruling backing the City Attorney's position. The City is now talking about clarifying the charter and perhaps a ballot measure. I can't imagine that the public would not support accountability.

Measuring Audit Results

Auditors regularly measure results of programs and services and also critique the agency's performance measures. Because of this, I have always published an annual report for my office that includes key measures such as reports per FTE, implementation rate, and hours per audit. If we require our agency to report performance, it makes sense that the audit office should also report. One measure I struggle with is outcome. What was the effect of our audits? The most common measure I have seen in other audit offices is annual savings attributed to audits. Since my office conducts performance audits, often we cannot measure cost savings. Generally, recommendations are directed towards improving effectiveness.

I have commented previously on what I consider to be similarities between the fields of journalism and auditing. An Oregonian article last Saturday about last minute legislative action included a sidebar that linked new laws to the Oregonian's investigative reporting. I think that this might offer a potential solution to measuring the effect of audits. Perhaps I can document concrete action taken by a Department or the Council that can be linked to audit findings. So, rather than cost savings, maybe I could categorize actions attributed to audit findings and then quantify them.

Didn't pass the "easy" test

I started with great interest a blog post at Freakonomics and thought that the links to "stat candy" might be good examples for auditing criteria about transparency and providing data to everyone. But after visiting both sites called out in the post, I was very disappointed. I know I haven't finished my coffee and it's early morning, but I was stumped. If I was unable to figure out how to pull data into maps and charts, how would the citizen feel. Obviously these sites are not for normal consumption. Increasing transparency needs to fit two criteria - easy to locate and easy to use.

Assigning blame where it belongs

Steve Duin, a columnist in the Oregonian, wrote today about a settlement with the family of a man who died as a result of his actions and those of public officials after his arrest. Many were involved including the arresting officers, jail staff, and the ambulance personnel. The columnist worries that without the exercise of a trial that will assign blame, there will be no motivation to change. I think there should be accountability in the system, but does assigning blame motivate employees to change?

An audit steps back and looks at the structure that allowed employees to make bad decisions. When I meet with auditees, I always tell them we are auditing a program's or service's performance, not the employee's performance. What was the tone at the top or the climate that allowed police to believe that a man urinating in a trendy neighborhood required a forceful police reaction? Are police trained to recognize that sometimes a person's actions can be the result of mental illness? Do personnel treat all medical emergencies with the same urgency and care? What is the procedure for medical personnel at the jail to make medical decisions? Should medical personnel at the jail and police reassess a person's medical condition before transporting to a hospital to determine the current urgency of the situation? Training, procedures, and the management climate can make for better outcomes. An audit would review all of those and assign blame, but not to the individual, instead to the services that failed. Then maybe there would be change.

More Web 2.0

Found out from a newspaper article that a local police agency is using twitter, MySpace and Facebook. I checked out the FB site for the Tigard Police Department. It is being used to reach out for assistance in ongoing investigations and to provide information.

Here is the most unique and interesting website I have seen for a government. Many interesting features, particularly the search function. Doesn't have the look and feel of the usual government site.

Update to fan of San Francisco on Facebook

Despite the interesting site that increases government accessibility for the San Francisco citizen, don't become a fan. Your "wall" will become inundated by messages from the city. More than you ever wanted to know on a daily basis.