The Sweet Spot for Government Auditors

The sweet spot

Government auditors seem to be everywhere! Some of us are legislative auditors, some of us are inspector generals, some of us are internal auditors, some of us are external auditors. All of us are working at making government better.

But some of us are killin’ it! We work in that sweet spot created when power, significance and service converge. It’s pretty rare for an audit shop to achieve all three…

Some of us don’t have the power to tell the truth. That’s because we report to the people we audit, and we can lose our jobs if we make too much of a fuss when something’s not working right.

Some of us have to put profits or the interests of the auditee ahead of public service. Since our funding comes directly from the auditee, we must compromise on what is best for the public in order to live to fight another day.

And some of us are doing work to simply check the box. We are deep in the weeds of compliance items or financial line items instead of asking whether the program we are evaluating actually works.

But there are auditors who live in the sweet spot, if only for a season.

Sometimes the season is short because leadership changes or something else changes in the environment. But when these auditors are at their peak, they make huge differences for the communities they serve.

Want to know more?

Want to explore these ideas in more depth and ask questions of a former resident of a sweet spot? Join Mary Hull Caballero (former City Auditor of Portland) and me for a two-hour discussion on Guarding Auditor Independence.