| Written by Colleen Waring,
|
 The Professional Issues Committee (PIC) of the Association of Local Government Auditors works long, hard hours keeping track of the (bazillions of) new developments in the audit profession, commenting on them on behalf of the organization, and when necessary, attempting to influence the profession and focus standard-setting bodies on the real concerns of ALGA's members. We never sleep.
However, regardless of how labor-intensive and intellectually challenging the work is, we love it. Perhaps our love for this service is best explained by the old adage, "Feedback is a business term which refers to the joy of criticizing other people's work. This is one of the few genuine pleasures of the job, and you should milk it for all it's worth."*
The "official" mission of the Professional Issues Committee is to monitor, evaluate, comment upon, and make suggestions to the ALGA Board regarding:
--" proposed changes to auditing standards by pertinent professional organizations; and
-- issues facing the auditing profession.
To achieve this mission, PIC has a humongous workload. We manage it by optimizing advanced technology. That is, we interact continuously via email, and periodically we meet on a teleconference to collaborate about our plans, concerns, and projects. Although we have learned that few things in life are less efficient than a group of people trying to write a sentence, we find that the advantage of this method is that we end up with something for which none of us can be blamed.* An even greater challenge to our work, however, is finding a congruent time for these important conference calls. Clearly, "it is futile to try to arrange a meeting with more than three participants. Beyond three it is statistically impossible to find a date when all of us will be available."* Accordingly, our next teleconference is firmly set for July 19, 2037. Besides the challenge of finding a meeting time, PIC members must monitor and advocate for ALGA with the standard-setting and regulatory bodies; seek out and grapple with emerging concerns (plus find new ways to address the old problems); and infiltrate and influence the key professional organizations that serve government auditors. Our plan contains the following "formal" objectives:
Objectives:
Advocate on behalf of member interests when relevant proposals, exposure drafts of standards, interpretations or other guidance are exposed for comment by pertinent regulatory bodies. (Our processes for achieving this objective include the work of our Headlights Subcommittee, that watches GASB, GAO, ISACA, AICPA, and IIA, and alerts PIC members of upcoming exposures or other pronouncements. Then all committee members review and comment on relevant exposure drafts or other guidance, and forward the comments to the Board for action.) Most recently, PIC has been reviewing the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum's draft strategic plan, which was issued for comment in May 2004. By the time this newsletter is published, we will have submitted our (PIC's) comments to the ALGA Board for review and possible endorsement. Identify issues facing the auditing profession and propose means for ALGA to address selected issues. (To accomplish this, PIC conducts an annual Emerging Issues survey of the entire membership, and forwards the results to the Board and other ALGA committees for input to their planning. A summary of the 2004 Emerging Issues Survey is included below.) Be the organization of choice for standards setting bodies and professional boards to request input on issues affecting local government accounting, auditing, or operations. Our approach to achieving this objective includes taking advantage of the considerable professional commitment of our existing members-nearly every PIC member is a member (many are even leaders) of governing or working committees of other professional organizations. Examples include one PIC member who serves on the Comptroller General's Advisory Council on the Government Auditing Standards; another who serves on the AICPA's Government Performance and Accountability Committee; and four PIC members are deeply involved and working extremely hard on The Institute of Internal Auditors' Government Relations Committee. If you are a ALGA member and also serve in a leadership role on other relevant professional organizations, consider joining the PIC to help us build and capitalize on these important relationships.
Finally, PIC stands ready to assist the Board in responding to stakeholder inquiries on professional issues. For example, when a researcher contacted the Board with specific questions about ALGA's Model Audit Legislation, PIC reviewed the relevant sections and drafted a reply. In the process of our review, we also identified and recommended other needed changes to update the Model Legislation, which the Board has assigned to the Education Committee to consider. PIC and the Education Committee will be collaborating on the update project. Emerging Issues Survey
In February 2004, PIC administered its annual survey of all ALGA members on critical emerging issues. Our approach to administering the survey involved emailing members a link to a web-based survey instrument. Since the survey questions were open-ended, we analyzed results using an automated content analysis program. The survey link was emailed to all ALGA members, and 52 completed the survey. The results were submitted to the ALGA Board in May 2004 for consideration. All of the respondents provided extensive, thoughtful comments to the questions. Responses fall into three major segments, which form the basis for how we propose to act on the information from the survey. The three categories relate to:
• education/training needs,
• public relations problems, and
• requests for additional guidance. With respect to education and training, the results indicate that respondents were greatly interested in expanding the availability of affordable, geographically dispersed training opportunities. PIC referred these ideas to the Education and Peer Review Committees. A second major category of issues raised relates to the challenges respondents face in obtaining or sustaining appropriate support for their work among management, governing bodies, and other stakeholders. We have forwarded detailed information on these concerns to the ALGA Advocacy Committee. As for guidance requests, respondents' interest in additional guidance overlapped with the topics suggested for training. The PIC is coordinating with other relevant ALGA committees as we develop our next priorities for guidance materials. The guidance materials most frequently mentioned related to information on how to address the 2003 Government Auditing Standards' limitations on non-audit services. Some issues raised were already in the process of being addressed. Specifically, respondents expressed interest in expanded benchmarking information. This interest reinforced the efforts of ALGA Board member Lou Lassiter, who was already expanding the 2004 ALGA benchmarking survey beyond the 2002 version. Unfortunately, although the respondents were generous with their time in providing thoughtful answers, with the information, the organization faces a tremendous challenge in choosing how to go forward. While the members of the PIC can collect, analyze, and summarize the needs of our membership, we are not in a position to identify resources that would be available to meet the highest priorities. Because the questions and concerns expressed by the survey respondents cover such a broad array of issues, additional resources would most likely be required to provide a comprehensive response. In this context, PIC plans to continue to analyze the data we received in the survey, as we are convinced that "the purpose of analysis is to avoid making hard decisions."* Current PIC Projects Underway From the Emerging Issues Survey results, PIC members selected two projects to pursue. • Model Chief Audit Executive Job Description: This document is intended to become a companion piece to the Model Audit Legislation. • As a service to the scores of respondents who asked for examples of other audit organizations' policies and procedures, PIC has initiated a project to get ALGA members' policies and procedures posted on their web sites. To test the feasibility of this project, PIC members will begin by posting our policies. In addition, PIC is coordinating with the Peer Review Committee to identify other organizations that have recently completed their peer reviews and might be interested in making their policies and procedures available for Internet browsing. My own organization has responded to PIC's request and posted our policies and procedures on the City Auditor's Links and Resources web page, under the "Resources" heading at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/auditor/links&resources.htm. PIC members, past and present
No single individual could ever accomplish the gargantuan tasks that the PIC tackles and conquers on a daily basis. This team operates like a well-oiled machine. This year's (2004-5) members are:
Candace Bridgers, Colorado Springs, CO
Mary Denzel, City of Seattle, WA
Joanne Griggs, City of Virginia Beach VA
Eileen M. Marzak, City of Gainesville
Sam McCall, City of Tallahassee, FL
Roland Smith, City of Oakland, CA
Debbie Taylor, Jackson County, OR
Allen Vann, Miami-Dade School District
Colleen Waring, City of Austin, TX Moreover, 2003-4 members who have also contributed extensively to our accomplishments in the past year include:
Beryl Davis, City of Orlando, FL
Suzanne Flynn, Multnomah Co, OR
Lou Lassiter, Chesterfield County VA If you have questions and issues for us, we welcome them! Let me know at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Respectfully submitted,
Colleen G. Waring, Chair
* Parables and proverbs adapted from Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business, by Scott Adams
|
