May 12, 2009
Save Performance Audits
One of the best ways to save money in a downturn is to identify where the government is wasting money. You do this through performance audits. We have a state auditor whose job it is -- as defined by the people recently -- to do just that.
So our legislature, facing a deficit of nine billion dollars, should encourage the auditor to do his job, right?
The legislature apparently doesn't see it that way, and have cut $29 million from the performance audit funds, 3/4ths of the total fund, preventing State Auditor Brian Sonntag from identifying hundreds of millions in waste.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has been all over this, and now The Olympian has weighed in.
Will Governor Gregoire veto it? We'll see ...
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Posted by pudge at May 12, 2009
05:09 PM | Email This
1. I like your articles, you have a great writing style!
Thanks for sharing
2. Cutting $29 million from Brian Sonntag's performance audit funds just, goes to show the public that State Government, as a whole, is more of a Crime Family than a Government for the People. It is intent on serving itself in the manner of a gang of thieves ripping off the tax payers for their own benefit, fun and games. Of course, they don't want their on going wrongful actions to be revealed. They don't want any accountability whatsoever, nor does any other Criminal on the face of the Earth.
3. first thing I'd do is audit everyone who voted to pass this coverup of Gov't waste...and I'd wash it in the "public" media for all to see
4. Please see this Crosscut article for email addresses of where you can send comments to try to save the audit funding:
http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/18947/
5. Performance audits are worthless unless there's appropriate 'measuring' objectivity and unless there is follow-up action. Audits, for the sake of audits and reporting that gets basically ignored is a waste of time and money. But, what's new.
6. @5...It is reported that for every dollar of audit cost, ten dollars are saved. However, even if that is exaggerated, the threat of audits and what they reveal will benefit the tax payers by hopefully, reducing some of the excess of Government waste. Also, waste being reveal under a particular governor would give a better chance of that governor being removed the next election.
7. Kind of makes one miss Dixie Ray, doesn't it?
8. # 6: I agree, but my unerlying points were a. there's no substantive follow-up, b. no objective measurement criteria, c. no publicity source brave enough (or of the right political persuasion) to focus on results and forcefully broadcast. Ergo, a waste of time and energy at least in this State.
9. AuditGirl...I agree that, for the most part, the audits are ignored by the legislators and the governor. I also believe, that Brian Sonntag is one of their own and will not embarrass them too much. He will simply play the game of finding a little of this and a little of that. He will present his findings to the powers that be and will release only the findings that are allowed by the powers that be. In that respect, one can say it is a waste of time, money and energy. However, we can only hope that some pressure is brought to the gang of thieves to reduce some of their theft. But, for the Government to have the arrogance of spitting in the tax payers face by completely neutering the office of the audit is very telling of the disrespect and lack of fear of retribution from the vote of the tax payer. They must feel that the voters are too dumb to wake up and vote them out. Unfortunately so far, they are right in their assumptions.
10. If anyone in the state GOP had a brain and a backbone, this issue would get some visibility via ads, and a PR campaign. There's a chance to mold public perception right now as the general mood of the public is digruntled, but our GOP is MIA as usual.
But hey, I'm sure they'll wait until the election comes then print some more yard signs that say "VOTE FOR ME" instead. That's worked so well for the GOP over the last 20 years.
11. #10 You know it's pretty bad when all you've got is a.) Mitt Romney, b.) Sarah Palin, c.) Carrie Prejean
12. Oh, (I forgot): d.) Grampa McCain.
13. AuditGirl:
a waste of time and energy at least in this State.
Not at all. Your points do not lead to this conclusion. This is exactly what the Democrats controlling the govt WANT you to think, but if we give up on the audits, they win. That won't happen.
Daniel: you're wrong about Sonntag. He's already made them look bad, to the tune of half a billion dollars of waste. He takes his job seriously and does it to the best of his ability.
PIFan: I'd rather have all of them than Obama, Schumer, Pelosi, and Roesgen.
14. I looks like their goal is to waste money. It employees a lot of government bureaucrats who will vote for them at the next election.
15. 'PIFan: I'd rather have all of them than Obama, Schumer, Pelosi, and Roesgen.'
You actually have a good point there. [smile]
16. We sure could have used a performance audit of the Iraq war.
17. Richard: we did. Thanks for positively contributing! Or not.
18. Pope, do you even know what your are talking about?
There are only one or two contractors large enough to be even qualified to conduct the logistics of the war and reconstruction. By definition, being large (use Federal government as example) means lots and lots of redundancy. Therefore, the government had to use one contractor since the scope of the work and the designs had not even been defined yet.
What you could ask is if after everything sort of settled in is whether the "no-bid" still needed to be done or whether some of the work could have been piecemealed.
I just don't know how you could do a "performance audit" of the war effort.
However, as difficult as it is, "performance audits" of state agencies (since it is not a war situation) always bears fruit.
19. And, sometimes bares fruit.
20. While I agree that the audits have been great for the state, their savings are typically in future budgets whereas spending on education now is for the current budget. In this budget crisis, every priority we all care about across the state is being cut. Would Rossi have cut the auditor's budget this much? Maybe, maybe not, but that money would be coming from somewhere and probably somewhere important.
21. Pudge:
Richard: we did [have a performance audit of the Iraq war]
What is it called and where is it?
22. Jensen: we have done many of them. Here's
one, here's
another.
23. Pudge,
One of your better posts.
Could you list/link who we should contact in State Government and whether it should be email, phone calls, hand written or typed letters, etc, or all of the above
Mr Sontag has done some good work with his POS and King County investment audit.
Audit girl is right, that you need to have properly qualified people for the operational audtis.
Shutting down the state ferry system to one run per day, while an option is not feasible if you want commerce to move between the Olympic penninsula and the rest of Western Washington
Seperate topic: Your title on Snohomish Councilman Mike Cooper was dead on
Besides "writing letters" to the County and newspapers, we need to rebuke the local tv station and reporter who featured Mike Cooper's windmill tilting all weekend on the local television news shows.
Homeowners can decide whether they want sprinklers installed in their residences or not.
Sprinklers do make sense in a multi storied commerical building.
Sprinklers are problematic in a typical residence due to the water damage done to the home and furnishings for small fires.
A better use of funds is multi exits, slow burning materials, an alarm system, beefing up the water mains, et al
24. pudge @13...In 17 years of being the state's auditor, Brian Sonntag audits have recommend nearly half a billion dollars in savings for state government. Big Deal! In the first place, they are just, recommendations and not savings at all. I doubt that the state acted on those recommendations with any great concern if at all. Having the funds available to do audits over a 17 year period, there should have been much, much more than a mere half a billion dollars of wasteful spending and fraud pointed out. I have a feeling that wasteful spending amounts to much more in just one year, let alone, over a time period of 17 years. What a poor showing. What a Crock! The whole thing is a game-play to create an illusion of credibility in doing his job.
I know that you and the voters are so desperate to have someone representing the tax payer against wasteful spending and out and out fraud that you will blindly accept Sonntag as a watchdog for the tax payer but, forget it. He's a Fox not, a watchdog. After all, he's a Liberal Democrat...He is one of the Boys.
25. Brian Sonntag is the only Demtard I have voted for because of his powerful stand on these audits. He knows that he can't get much results from them because his hands are tied. But he does at least bring this crap to light. I know a lady who works for him and the only reason he is a dem is because he understands that the only way to get elected in this state is as a dem.
26. You know the value of an audit took a dramatic dip to me when presumabily Bernie Madoff, the banks, the auto-makers, Fannie-Mae, Freddy-Mac, etc., et al were never exposed or revealed by audits of supposidly the top 5 accounting firms in the world.
27. Daniel:
In 17 years of being the state's auditor, Brian Sonntag audits have recommend nearly half a billion dollars in savings for state government.
That half billion is only since 2006, when I-900 was passed. Look into the history of I-900 and find out for yourself what's actually going on. The 17-year period you reference is not the point at all.
Big Deal!
Yes, it is.
28. AuditGirl, actually, Madoff and the automakers and Fannie/Freddie ... we knew they had problems, due to audits.
With Madoff, no one wanted to hear it: one accountant for years was telling the government either Madoff was doing insider trading, or was a fraud. The government investigated him for insider trading and didn't find anything. They failed in not continuing their investigating, but the numbers told us Madoff was a fraud long ago.
We ALL knew the automakers were in trouble, a long time ago. Same thing with Fannie and Freddie.
29. ergo...my point:
What good are audits if no one heeds them.
30. Pudge...I stand corrected on the recommended savings of nearly a half a billion dollars over a three year plus period rather than, a 17 year period. Thank you for that correction. However, I'm sure with the tens of millions of dollars for auditing, he certainly could have found more. I'm glad that somebody is there waving a flag rather, than nobody but, I feel with the right person we could do a lot more.
31. I don't think a veto is a possible remedy. If she line-item vetoes that that portion of the budget, then the auditing department would get no money. Legislative action might correct that, but will that prevent republicans from saying Gregoire tried to veto Sonntag's money? Should would be foolish to use her line-item veto power like that.
32. AuditGirl:
What good are audits if no one heeds them
I am heeding them. The state government is not, but shouldn't citizens be informed of what their state government ISN'T doing?
Jensen: If she line-item vetoes that that portion of the budget, then the auditing department would get no money
I don't believe that's the case. This is money IN the performance audits fund. What she would veto would be the taking of money from that fund. If she does that, the money would remain in the fund.
33. Well I know last year. The Audits were available for the Legislature to review. The Democrats who ran the committees found it fit not to look at them. We have a huge Deficit currently. Any savings identified should help a bad situation a little bit better. These audits savings may be more than a half billion dollars. But if our elected officials including the Governor do not use the information is not the State Auditors fault. And should not be an excuse to cut fundings. Please note the Legislature says they have auditors that do the same thing. But never see any real results from the legislative auditors.
So Democrats ignoring a starting point for saving money. Democrats who tell our State Auditor not to audit certain areas of various departments. Block him from a good audit that could have found even more fraud and waste.
But Democrats have only one goal. State Income tax. An emergency to get the people to agree to give the capability to tax us to the level California taxes its citizens. THey will claim only the rich. But in the end it will affect everyone. They need the waste to have the emergency. ANd this could move our state from recession status to a depression status like Michigan.
34. I am heeding them. The state government is not, but shouldn't citizens be informed of what their state government ISN'T doing?
Good, you're an exception. For the most part it will be self-evident and/or it will be duly pointed out by the opposing political party.
Don't get me wrong, I just think if we are to have audits we should make them count, and follow them up with action to correct the discovered weaknesses; I don't believe this is being done like it should be on any level.
35. Good comment David Anfinrud. I agree about Government using a crisis to advance their gain over the governed. Yes, they will use this opportunity to advance the idea of a state income tax and any other tax they can impose. Unfortunately, it is not just the Democrats, it is the majority of the politicians who will be bipartisan on the raising of taxes. Raising taxes is their livelihood for growth of Government, their security and advancing their personal wealth. These people are criminal parasites whose purpose is to live off the earnings of the producers of a society. They will do so until they kill the society aka the goose that lays the golden egg for them. They are like locusts who will feed and multiply upon the populace until there is nothing left except despair. We will all be paupers if we don't rein in this rising plague.
36. if we are to have audits we should make them count
Of course. But the political class ignoring them is not a reason to not have them. At all. That's just letting the legislature keep the people in even MORE darkness.
37. Gregoire will veto nothing that ever reigns in the power of her evergrowing governement. No more taxes My Ass, she is costing me thousands more every damn year she is in power. Send her to Washington, where she can wallow in trillions of wasted dollars.
38. This is nothing more than a test of Gregoire's accountability. If she vetoes performance audits, she shows that she doesn't care about accountability. Hopefully, she will surprise us and not veto it. Hope and Change (?)
39. The politicians in Olympia are like cockroaches...they hate sunlight.
40. I don't need a $29 million audit. I already know 50% of the budget is wasted, just cut that immediately and we'll be OK.