The taxpayers deserve value for their money

A newspaper reporter in Raleigh took a close look at one state government program and found something seriously wrong.

The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles employs 61 people to check once each quarter on the 4,000 stations that perform emissions inspections.

Big job? "That workload averages out to little more than one audit per day. And each audit takes roughly 45 minutes to two hours to conduct," Dan Kane of The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

Despite that light schedule, Kane added, the 11-county Raleigh district was given more workers in the past year. And, in a disappointing but predictable response, DMV did not propose to reduce the number of employees. Rather, "the plan is to make work for them."

Taxpayers shouldn’t be charged to "make work" for state employees. Each person on the public payroll should deliver a day’s work for a day’s pay. Furthermore, that work should provide a necessary service to the public.

Where were the auditors? The N.C. Office of the State Auditor only has the resources to examine the accounts of a few state agencies each year. The real problem, State Auditor Les Merritt said Wednesday, is that internal auditing procedures within agencies are "woefully lacking and not coordinated."

That is supposed to change with the creation of the Council of Internal Auditing by the General Assembly this year. The council consists of high-level state officials, who are required to supervise a program of internal auditing within every state agency that employs more than 100 workers or spends more than $10 million annually.

One of the assignments auditors will have is to review "the effectiveness and efficiency of agency and program operations and service delivery," the legislation directs.

Merritt calls the initiative "one of the most important things I’ve seen passed in a long time." But it depends on "buy-in" from top management, starting with the governor, he added.

State government spending has been increasing by 10 percent a year. Much of that growth may be justified, but it’s difficult to have confidence when some agencies have to make work for under-utilized employees — and then are budgeted for even more workers.

All state agencies should have internal controls to make sure money is spent properly, accounts balance and work is conducted efficiently. It’s unacceptable to automatically increase budgets year after year regardless of need or outcomes.

The new Council of Internal Auditing owes it to the public to plow through bureaucratic obstacles and demand accountability. The taxpayers can’t afford rising costs for lousy productivity.

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071004/NRSTAFF/71003038