The mantra dates back to James Madison, who is credited with saying: “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
OK, OK, complaints about government spending and government waste likely predate Madison. But the Founding Father provides a good jumping-off point to discuss a most necessary line-item veto delivered by Gov. Jay Inslee as he signed this year’s budget proposal from the Legislature. Inslee restored $10 million that was going to be cut from the state auditor’s performance audit account — the very account that helps the state root out waste, fraud, and misappropriations that are festering within government agencies.
The desire of lawmakers to cut $10 million from the fund’s budget is somewhat understandable. It was, in part, a response to the unconscionable actions of state Auditor Troy Kelley, who has refused to resign despite being on trial for multiple federal charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and other crimes related to his former real-estate business. And Inslee’s proposed supplemental budget, delivered in December, also called for a cut to the account.
That cut would have been added to a $12.5 million slice the previous year, with the combined impact amounting to about three-quarters of the department’s performance audit budget. But wiser heads prevailed when it came to time to sign the budget, and taxpayers are better off for it.
The auditor’s office annually conducts more than 2,000 examinations of government agencies, and success stories are easy to find:
• Just last week, an audit revealed that the Washington Commission on African American Affairs diverted more than $250,000 to a former member’s nonprofit organization. “About $69,000 of the total was spent for things not allowed under state law, such as training people to lobby the Legislature, and transporting and feeding them,” The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review reported. That waste and abuse of funds would not have come to light without the auditor’s office.
• An audit released last month found that over a 15-month period, inmates in county jails had been paid about $650,000 in unemployment benefits for which they should have been ineligible.
• A 2014 review of state computers earmarked to be sold found that nearly 10 percent of them contained confidential information such as Social Security numbers or medical records.
Those are just a handful of the ways in which the auditor’s office has helped to root out government waste or errors, and in the long run the office can save money for taxpayers. That was the reasoning behind the Tim Eyman-backed Initiative 900, which passed with 56 percent of the vote in 2005 and directed the auditor’s office to conduct performance audits of state local governments. The measure marked 0.16 percent of the state’s portion of sales and use taxes to fund the audits.
Currently, the office is undertaking audits of programs in two departments that have come under fire from many legislators: Corrections and Transportation. There is no telling what those examinations will turn up, but a strong watchdog agency is essential to maintaining the public trust while enforcing governmental efficiency.
Of course, nothing will entirely eliminate complaints about government waste. But a well-funded auditor’s office certainly can help.
