For all the criticism governments receive — often deservedly — there are times when a government operation works sublimely. Three recent examples demonstrate how one sector of government can operate independently and authoritatively to expose weaknesses in other sectors of government. We’re talking about the extensive investigations in performance audits conducted by the office of state Auditor Brian Sonntag.
Two of those examples are local, and in one case, the most recent news is positive.
The city of Washougal recently received a clean report on a performance audit that revealed no significant shortcomings; the report also highlighted how the city had addressed past deficiencies. According to a Columbian story by Marissa Harshman, Washougal city officials have increased internal controls to ensure that all transactions are properly documented and conducted for public benefit.
That’s a huge turnaround from 2008, when a performance audit excoriated former Mayor Stacee Sellers and other city officials for $100,000 of public money that was unaccounted for and numerous breakdowns in accountability of public funds. Sean Guard, who was elected mayor in 2009, said the performance “is exactly what we expected we would have and should have every year.” Congratulations to all Washougal officials who were reviewed by Sonntag’s office.
The second example is not so encouraging, quite troubling, in fact, for taxpayers and residents in Yacolt. A recent state performance audit maintains that the town violated state laws by purchasing equipment from an employee’s personal business without going through the competitive bidding process. Town officials dispute that finding. But the performance audit also notes that Yacolt’s municipal management lacks internal controls over financial operations, and that Mayor Joe Warren does not provide adequate oversight of the town’s finances and has not implemented previous audit recommendations. In short: “The town is susceptible to undetected misappropriations and misuse of public resources.”
If Warren and other city officials do not get their act together immediately, they deserve whatever action is imposed by voters, plus whatever wrath comes their way in follow-up reports from Sonntag’s office.
The third example is in Seattle, where a performance audit exposed $1.8 million that was misspent by an employee who, according to KCPQ-TV, “should never have been hired in the first place. He wasn’t qualified for the job and had no experience negotiating contracts. He also had mountains of personal debt, owed back taxes and unpaid child support.” That person is Silas Potter, manager of a school district contracting program. Seattle School Board President Steve Sundquist said he is “angry and enormously disappointed, like every other parent and taxpayer in Seattle.” Sonntag said that as the investigation proceeded, “we’ve gone from $35,000 to $1.8 million. It’s a big deal. It’s public money and the taxpayers should be served better.”
Everything you’ve read so far in this editorial is meant to inspire both anger (at the poor performances of some public bodies) and confidence (at the state’s oversight of those entities).
It’s terrible that these types of abuses occur and that public money is misspent in ways that elicit the very criticism that was described earlier. We shudder to think what else might have been going on before November 2005, when voters approved Initiative 900, which created the performance-audit system.
Second, it’s gratifying that Sonntag’s investigators have become so adept at holding public officials’ feet to the fire, and that so many millions of dollars in savings have been identified statewide.
