This is worse than "penny-wise and pound-foolish." This is reverse feedback. If you cut funds for the state auditor for performance audits he will not root around and find systemic waste, which would save us far more than the cost of his audits. For example in 2007 a performance audit found $10 million per year in wasted spending by Washington State Ferries - again.
But performance audits were forced on the powerful of the state by the voters by Initiative 900 (Tim Eyman!), so they are a top target for reducing or eliminating. And if they do it in the budget maybe no one will notice.
The House budget (pdf) (page 6) takes about half the State Auditor's budget away. It is designated for a bunch of things, some of which appear to be audits.
Performance Audit Account Program Funding (-$13.5 million General Fund-State; $13.5 million Performance Audits of Government-State)Washington Policy Center also has State Auditor Brian Sontag's testimony on this proposed shot in the foot. Posted by Ron Hebron at April 02, 2009 08:30 AM | Email ThisFunding for JLARC, GMAP, WSIPP, K-12 budget driver audits and conservation district audits is provided from the Performance Audits of Government Account for the 2009-11 biennium rather than with General Fund-State.
Thank you for posting this Ron
I was going to post it on the "side bar" but as an approved blogger, you have better "real estate"
http://access.wa.gov/government/state_legislature.aspx
The legislature contact info is above.
I'm going to call Ed, Jamie, and "Chopper" this morning and share my feelings.
I saw this article in The Olympian Wed and called the state legislature and left a voice mail to make sure she had not been misquoted in cutting the State Auditor's budget 50%
The call was not returned.
Jeanne Kohl-Welles' and Lisa Brown's decision to submit a 1% state income tax is absurd, when they have not done full financial and operational audits for the State of Washington; and Christine Gregoire has not issued a decree that all State, Local and County agencies will begin working toward implementing SOx 404 COSO Sarbanes Oxley to ensure the citizen shareholders of Washington that a system of internal control exists to prevent the government equivalent of Enron, MCI, Whoops, Bernie Madoff, and most recently Wamu.
There have been comments in various newspapers that operational audits are done by people with no industry experience.
Mr Sonntag can correct this by engaging Jefferson Wells and Resources. Both of these firms use CPAs, CMAs, CTPs et al who have worked as auditors and "driven the desk" in industry.
Could the $35 million UW Medical School fine and Port of Seattle audit failure and subsequent DOJ investigations been prevented if management of these organizations had followed Best Practices with a system of Internal Control?
Posted by: Green Lake Mark on April 2, 2009 09:30 AMOlympia Democrats and Seattle Progressives don't understand the concept of wasted spending. In their minds, there is no wasted spending. All spending is good. More, more, more. Bankrupt the state, bankrupt the union. That's the goal. Knock us down a peg. Be more like Europe. In the eyes of the Progressive, the USA has done too well. Time to mow down the tall poppies.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 2, 2009 10:45 AMRe "...all State, Local and County agencies will begin working toward implementing SOx 404 COSO Sarbanes Oxley..."
To what are you referring? Something specific or just pseudo, feel-good accountability like SOX?
We need to remind people about that UW Med school fiasco and keep pushing POS.
Posted by: Ron Hebron on April 2, 2009 11:00 AMTake, for example, the audit of the 10 largest school districts, which Sonntag said would save millions of dollars; most of the suggestions in the audit report were unworkable or had already been implemented. When the best advice he can come up with is "Buy a new computer program!", the advice stinks.
The audit of the Educational Service Districts (ESDs) was similarly lousy, had next to 0 actionable steps, and has been roundly ignored by the agencies audited.
I've heard good things about a transportation audit he did, but it's outside my area so I haven't read it. Let's remember, though, that the auditor's opinion is far from perfect.
Posted by: Ryan on April 2, 2009 11:21 AMHere is the senates proposed 'cut' to public schools.
http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Detail/2009/so0911agydetail_0330.pdf
Public schools operating budget: 15,858,968.
Here is the actual 2007-2009.
http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/lbns/2007parti.pdf
Public schools operating budget: 15,070,666.
How is that a cut?
Posted by: Lysander on April 2, 2009 12:27 PMAs for the audits, the only ones calling them "failures" are those who have to adhere and respond to their recommendations. The savings in taxpayer dollars for every audit dollar spent is something like 10 to 1.
Posted by: Palouse on April 2, 2009 12:33 PMYou go, Brian! And keep it up---we appreciate what you do!
I would also like to add that I'm not at all sympathetic to those in govt. who complain about being audited. They apparently forget or don't know that private businesses get audited by the state all the time. THEY DON'T HAVE A CHOICE AS TO WHETHER THEY WANT TO BE AUDITED. THEY HAVE TO DO IT. And yes it's a pain, but if government requires it, then govt. themselves have NO business complaining about being audited.
Posted by: Michele on April 2, 2009 12:35 PMAnd that would ease congestion for those of us in the private sector, especially those of us who have to drive as part of our business. And free up the roads for commercial transport, which can't use the light rail to get good to the millions of locations where the trains and even buses do not go.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 2, 2009 02:12 PMSeveral years ago they audited the state pharmacies. The wrote at the end that there were millions of missing pills. But there were no missing pills just bad auditing. As an example of their bad accounting: They said that since the pharmacy said they had 2000 40mg tabs but they only found 4000 20 mg tabs. That there were 6000 in unaccounted for tabs. The 2000 ( 40 mg tabs)and the 4000 (20 mg tabs). That like saying that in a McDonalds till there is $6000 unaccounted for since the $3000 was in $20 bills when they thought the $3000 should be in $50 bills.
The PI ran a huge headline about all the missing tabs and looked like really stupid doing it.
I am all for performance audits, but everyone must go through them, not just Mr. Sonntag's method of picking at low-hanging fruit so he can create a bunch of gotcha moments.
For example, his office's review of the State Ferry system had the same audit finding for what 18 years in a row. I would argue that if Mr. Sonntag was truly effective and interested in results and not cheap publicity, that he would have used his bully pulpit to ensure that there was not 18 years of the same audit finding to just cite one example.
Posted by: some audit guy on April 2, 2009 03:34 PMI would vote for a tax increase this fall to fund what his office does.
And to Hell with the rest of these idiots Like Lisa Browns Income Tax and Gregoires magical 9 Billion dollar debt, it is all voodoo, stick a pin in it and it will explode.
And for the bully pulpit comment: his agency is a reporting agency, not an enforcement agency. He can say all he wants in the papers, but they don't HAVE to listen to him. The 18 years of findings at the ferry system should have been an indication to the legislature to do something about it since Sonntag's office can't force the affected agency to take action. They simply get to report the issue again.
It looks like Daniel is in the private sector auditing business as well. An well-known international accounting/auditing firm (KPMG) is now getting sued for $1 billion because of their alleged negligence. That firm also does some of the local audits of governments. So should we rely on them since they couldn't even see material problems at a major financial institution? No thanks. And, again, he does not have the authority to bring criminal charges. Please check your facts.
Posted by: Michael H on April 3, 2009 08:37 AMThe problem is when the Government ignores the results of the audits; the auditor has no authority to enforce the results, and 9 times out of 10 the Government ignores the reports on its own inefficiency.
The one thing I'd recommend Mr. Sonntag do is to make it a weekly appointment to hit the Conservative talk show circuit in Washington. Yes, it's small, but at least it will listen to his reports and recommendations, unlike most of the rest of the media (who believe any dollar spent by the Government is a good dollar's value).
The State will never take Mr. Sonntag's reports seriously as long as there are no penalties for ignoring him. The only way that will change is if the reports get much wider play in the media. And right now, the only media that will pay attention is Conservative talk radio.
I'd do Kirby Wilbur in the morning, the Commentators in the late morning, Dori Monson in early afternoon, and David Boze in the late afternoon. Once a week, 15 minutes per show. You'll find more and more people becoming aware of the great work the Auditor's office does!
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on April 3, 2009 11:54 AMAs for you Moondoggie, your using typical Liberal condescending phrases such as, mean spirited. However, the word Fool is usually reserved by the Conservatives in describing a Liberal. You wouldn't be a Government employed Liberal, would you?
I judge men by what they do; Brian Sonntag has proven to be pretty even handed and fair in his audits of the State. You're apparently in the auditing field, if you don't like it, how about you run for the position?
Sonntag is one of the few State-level elected officials who seems to at least take pride in his job, and sticks to what he's been elected to do, and do it with the wishes of his bosses (we, the voters) in mind.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on April 3, 2009 05:43 PMYou make some valid points, but I would have to disagree with them. Mr. Sonntag is a politician through and through, he only believes in what will get him elected the next time. In 2008, he was going to run for Pierce County Executive because it would have increased his pay and therefore his retirement. The only reason he didn't is because Pat McCarthy had already sown up Brian's bread and butter supporters, (the unions).
He saw he would have had to actually campaign and Mr. Sonntag is lazy, so he ran for State Auditor again, and won easily since it is basically a lifetime gig. There hve been what 7-10 State Auditors in the entire history of the state.
Don't get me wrong, I like Mr. Sonntag, but he is more interested in playing gotcha with his audit clients instead of finding ways to actually curb the behavior.
Michael - I have audit experience, and I do know that if I had the experience with my private auditors as my friends who are in finance in government have had (mainly negative) then I would fire the auditors and it has nothing to do with what they find but with their competence.
Ask Mr. Sonntag what his yearly turnover ratio is for audit staff?
You make some valid points, but I would have to disagree with them. Mr. Sonntag is a politician through and through, he only believes in what will get him elected the next time. In 2008, he was going to run for Pierce County Executive because it would have increased his pay and therefore his retirement. The only reason he didn't is because Pat McCarthy had already sown up Brian's bread and butter supporters, (the unions).
He saw he would have had to actually campaign and Mr. Sonntag is lazy, so he ran for State Auditor again, and won easily since it is basically a lifetime gig. There hve been what 7-10 State Auditors in the entire history of the state.
Don't get me wrong, I like Mr. Sonntag, but he is more interested in playing gotcha with his audit clients instead of finding ways to actually curb the behavior.
Michael - I have audit experience, and I do know that if I had the experience with my private auditors as my friends who are in finance in government have had (mainly negative) then I would fire the auditors and it has nothing to do with what they find but with their competence.
Ask Mr. Sonntag what his yearly turnover ratio is for audit staff?
You make some valid points, but I would have to disagree with them. Mr. Sonntag is a politician through and through, he only believes in what will get him elected the next time. In 2008, he was going to run for Pierce County Executive because it would have increased his pay and therefore his retirement. The only reason he didn't is because Pat McCarthy had already sown up Brian's bread and butter supporters, (the unions).
He saw he would have had to actually campaign and Mr. Sonntag is lazy, so he ran for State Auditor again, and won easily since it is basically a lifetime gig. There hve been what 7-10 State Auditors in the entire history of the state.
Don't get me wrong, I like Mr. Sonntag, but he is more interested in playing gotcha with his audit clients instead of finding ways to actually curb the behavior.
Michael - I have audit experience, and I do know that if I had the experience with my private auditors as my friends who are in finance in government have had (mainly negative) then I would fire the auditors and it has nothing to do with what they find but with their competence.
Ask Mr. Sonntag what his yearly turnover ratio is for audit staff?
This is only true if the legislature intended on following any of the suggestions. If they don't want to follow the suggestions, then, in their minds, they are saving money.
Oops - they never "save" money, they just free it up to be spent somewhere else.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 3, 2009 07:51 PMUnkl Witz
demo kid
to tell us how wrong we are?
Posted by: Crusader on April 4, 2009 06:00 PMThe Lite Rail is 8 billion and headed towards 80.
No one cares.
Posted by: John Bailo on April 5, 2009 09:32 PM