<p> Oversight Enhances Agency Accountability</p><p>(Appeared in Berkeley Voice, 2/3/2006)</p><p>By Ann-Marie Hogan, City Auditor, City of Berkeley</p><p>In recent years, financial scandals in the private sector (Enron, WorldCom) have raised awareness of the need to establish accountability and restore public confidence. Some local governments (such as San Diego) have also demonstrated the unhappy results of poor internal controls and lack of sufficient independent oversight. The public increasingly demands a higher level of financial and program accountability and transparency from government. </p><p>Several Bay Area agencies have recently taken some important steps to improve oversight by establishing independent audit committees, staff audit functions or inspector general positions. Such actions should enhance accountability to taxpayers and help insure that public funds are spent in the public interest.</p><p>The Peralta College Board of Trustees is to be commended for their recent action in hiring an independent inspector general who will report to the Board so as to maintain independence from management.</p><p>The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has established an independent audit committee, composed of three local residents and two School Board members, charged with oversight of the commercial auditors who perform the district’s annual financial statement audit. This step was recommended for all Alameda County school districts by the 2003 Grand Jury, and was recommended for Berkeley and for Oakland by The State’s Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistant Team (FCMAT). BUSD, too, should be commended for taking this important step.</p><p>The City of Richmond, in response to the California State Auditor’s December 2004 report, reviewed options for increased accountability. Mayor Anderson and the Richmond City Council voted to establish an independent staff audit function, consisting of a City Auditor and several assistant auditors. This proposal was developed by Richmond’s interim City Manager Phil Batchelor and interim Finance Director Patrick Samsell, who had the courage and the foresight to understand that a performance auditor function, appropriately staffed and independent of the city manager and the finance department, would provide much needed fiscal oversight and become a force for improvement. Let’s hope the city can move forward to successfully to complete their good work.</p><p>Auditors are frequently seen as the bearers of bad news. As we begin a new year, let’s take time to celebrate the steps that some of our local governing boards and managers are taking to increase independent oversight. </p><p>Ann-Marie Hogan is Berkeley’s elected City Auditor and serves on the Board of the Association of Local Government Auditors.</p>