For more than 12 years, state Auditor Brian Sonntag has pleaded with lawmakers to put performance audits of state agencies in his arsenal. It’s ridiculous, he rightly argues, that the auditor can’t grade how well state government meets the needs of the citizens it serves.
Sonntag, a Democrat who is highly respected by members of both parties, gives a thumbs-up to the performance audit bill passed by the House last month, calling it a much stronger version than the one the House approved unanimously last year.
The Senate should add its approval.
House Bill 1064 (in the Senate, it’s SB 5124) isn’t perfect, Sonntag says, but on a scale of 1 to 100, he gives it an 85. He’ll take that.
The bill would create a citizen advisory board, appointed by the Legislature and governor, to work with the auditor in identifying agencies whose performance would be audited and establishing criteria to measure it. The auditor, who would be a non-voting member of the board but presumably would wield considerable influence, would start by spending the next year doing a top-to-bottom performance review of state government. From those results – which by themselves could uncover shortcomings – the board would choose agencies to audit.
Sonntag would hire contractors to do the audits, the results of which would be posted on the Internet for all to see. All this would cost about $2.5 million per biennium, an investment that would more than pay for itself in increased efficiency.
Performance audits save money and improve efficiency. They identify programs and services that can be eliminated, reduced, consolidated or enhanced. They expose program gaps and overlaps. They find out whether programs are still focused on their intended mission.
Some Republicans who oppose the bill say it isn’t tough enough. They’d rather see Sonntag completely in charge of how audits are conducted and where they’re targeted. The argument for having an advisory board in place is that it keeps too much power from being vested in one branch of government. Sonntag says he’s happy to go along in order to get performance audits going.
Anti-tax votes in recent years show how serious voters are about government accountability. Tim Eyman’s Initiative 900, which would give the auditor’s office $10 million a year to conduct performance audits of state and local agencies, figures to pick up steam if senators fail to act.
Sonntag, long a lonely voice in support of performance audits, says he would prefer the House’s solution to Eyman’s. The Senate should give it to him.
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