In Philadelphia, where the city controller is elected and where he is frequently at odds with the mayor and other city officials, getting the message to the citizens is an essential part of the Controller's Office organizational mission. Our reason for being, of course, is to effect positive change; and when those in power are not inclined to budge, we have to apply pressure—the weight of public opinion. Without the ability to take our message to the citizens, we would be largely impotent.
The Office of the City Controller is established under our home rule charter, which also grants the controller the right to sue for sufficient funding. Other audit shops are not so fortunate. For these agencies, their ability to speak the truth depends largely on the extent of their public support. Unless the public values what they do, unless the citizens see the auditors as the one group standing between them and the ravages of impersonal government, the audit agency's days may be numbered if it speaks the truth a little too often. For these auditors, communicating results to the citizens is a matter of survival.
Getting Your Message to the Media
This may come as a shock to many auditors, but citizens don’t read audit reports; they read newspapers. They also listen to the radio and watch television. If you want to connect with the citizens, you have to connect with the media first.
Give them something to report. Though the supply of news is virtually infinite, the amount of print space and air time is not. To get your share, you'll have to compete with murders, robberies, and the latest doings of Mary Kate and Ashley. This will not be easy if what you bring to the table are internal control weaknesses.
Now as every auditor knows, in the hierarchy of human depravity, crimes against system integrity rank just below crimes against humanity. But the media, viewing the world from a different vantage point, need somewhat more stimulation. Itemizing system deficiencies looks an awful lot like bean counting, and "bean counter" is not a term of endearment. The public does not value bean counting, and what the public does not value, the media will not attempt to sell them. If you want to connect with the citizens, you will have to either change the bill of fare or reach for the Hamburger Helper.
One way to spice up the meal is add some carefully-nuanced humor: a turn or a twist to a story that, on the surface, doesn't look like humor, but can't fail to elicit a chuckle.
A few years ago, we did a report on our City Council that took exception to their year-end spending frenzies. One such last-minute purchase was postage stamps—100,000 in all. This was on top of $30,000 to replenish their postage meter.
After providing chapter and verse, we closed the discussion with this observation: In just a few weeks, postal rates were due to increase. Given the inventory of stamps on hand, Council would have to purchase 78,000 three-cent stamps in order to use the twenty-nine-cent stamps still remaining.
Separating yourself from the pack. To the media and public at large, statements by government agencies are political speech: an activity that's immensely entertaining but not to be taken seriously. If you want to be taken seriously, you must distinguish your communications from garden-variety political speech. Begin by telling your readers what the auditee has done right. The effect will be shocking; and, by taking the high road, you will lend the criticisms appearing later in the report an air of evenhandedness. People, particularly the media, will begin to take you seriously.
Attractive and user-friendly. The secret to marketing a successful product is to make it attractive and user-friendly?pleasing to look at and easy to use. Forget, for a minute, how the report reads. When you hold it at arm's length, do you see plenty of open space or a wall of words reminiscent of the Talmud? Does the organization remind you more of USA Today or the Internal Revenue Code? If the appearance repels the prospective reader, there is little chance he will dig right in.
If appearance is the report’s packaging, then uptake speed is its ease of use. How fast is the message communicated? If the reader’s in a skimming mode, he’s looking for headlines and pictures.
Audit headlines, the comment headings, often don't receive the attention they deserve; yet they may be all the story the reader ever gets. How much time would you spend on a three-to-five word phrase, if that phrase had to stand alone, without the support of the report narrative? That's just what the headings do in the table of contents.
“A picture," the illustrator N. C. Wyeth once observed, "is the briefest method known to communicate an idea to the human mind." It's not only worth a thousand words, but it communicates at the speed of light. Consider figures 1 and 2.
The message here is quick and clear: the Recreation Department has a serious safety problem and corrective action is needed. The prospective reader doesn't need to know about management controls, best practices, or noncompliance: he'll get your drift. And if the photo makes the desired impression, he'll want to know more.
Speed aside, we live in a visual age. For many, the medium truly is the message: if there is no picture, there is no message. The citizens get much of their news from television, which is a visual medium; yet auditors try to communicate with the citizens without pictures. True, the talking heads can talk about the report, or they can show you talking about it. But this is kind of like watching a sportscaster describe a ballgame without the benefit of footage. You're asking people to use their mind's eye, a knack they may long have forgotten or never learned.
Pictures are the gold standard. But if you can't get pictures, or the subject matter doesn't lend itself to pictorial presentation, tables and charts are the next best thing. But a word of warning: Auditors are accustomed to reading tables and charts; journalists and broadcasters are not. If the message has to be decoded, it may remain a secret forever. For an illustration to be successful, it must be as unequivocal as a stop sign. If you have several things to say, consider saying them in several discrete presentations. Your chances of connecting will be immeasurably improved.
Condense, condense, condense.
Let's assume that the reader hasn't been driven away by the report's appearance. Let's further assume that something in the headings, pictures, or illustrations has caught his eye. How do we ensure that the report keeps his attention and delivers the right message? Condense, condense, condense.
Auditors love to set the stage.
They love to recount in minute detail what they did and how they did it. The reader, particularly the layperson, couldn't care less what you did; he wants to know what you found. If the audit procedure is an essential part of the finding, fine; but relegate it to an appropriate place down the page. As a general rule, the finding goes first. There's a very practical reason for this. If the reader decides to channel-surf before you're finished talking, he's gotten the essential information before he moves on.
Even if you've done a yeoman's job streamlining the report for the reader’s convenience, it may not be streamlined enough. Hence the executive summary (digest) and results in brief.
What is an executive summary? It is not the report in columnar format, though this is frequently what masquerades as one. An executive summary is a presentation of the report material abbreviated to such an extent that the entire report can be digested in a matter of minutes. How short should an executive summary be? A useful rule of thumb is this: When you get to the end of the second page, start looking for the finish line!
The results in brief is the last safeguard against the reader determined to test his speed-reading skills on your report. The results in brief is a single sentence introducing the executive summary that either presents the prinicpal finding of the report or the theme of the report, if the findings can be woven into one. How can a report be reduced to a single sentence? Watch the lead-ins to the 6 o'clock news and you'll find out. If you haven't included a results in brief in your report, you may be left wondering what report the newspeople are talking about.
A failure to communicate.
A few months ago, we met with a reporter from a major newspaper to discuss a recently-issued report. The gentleman wanted some background information and clarification for an upcoming article. Among the issues discussed was a finding that the Sheriff’s Office was not reconciling escrow assets and liabilities; consequently, the sheriff had no idea how much money he was supposed to have on hand. The sticking point was another finding in which we charged that the sheriff’s staff was doing a poor job of preparing bank reconciliations. “You guys claim, said the reporter, “that the sheriff isn’t doing reconciliations; and then you claim that he isn’t doing them right. Which is it?”
This seemed like a slam-dunk. We began by explaining what an escrow fund was, how the accounting equation was assets equal liabilities, how what the sheriff needed to do was take a trail balance of liabilities and compare the balance to cash-general-ledger thus proving the availability of assets. This, of course, was separate and distinct from proving that cash-general-ledger equaled cash-per-bank.
We waited for the light to go on, but there was ne’er a glimmer. To this very bright guy, we might as well have been speaking a Martian dialect.
The problem was, of course, that we were speaking “Countanese,” the language of accountants and auditors. Lest there be some doubt as to what Countanese sounds like, here is an example:
KBR has submitted adjusting invoices for the actual final un-audited years (FY2000, FY 2001, and FY 2002) indirect cost rates. FY 1999 is the most current audited and negotiated final indirect cost rate.
There is a real messages here, but it’s not communicated due to a language barrier. Luckily, the problem is correctable through rewrite. Other jargon problems are more serious. Jargon is sometimes used intentionally as smokescreen for ignorance. At other times it is used sincerely by professionals who believe that there is a substantive message in the arcane language they throw around. It is painful to watch a reporter interviewing an auditor afflicted with jargon disease. Communication is impossible because there's nothing to communicate. Assuming your rhetorical malady is treatable, there is an very effective over-the-counter remedy. Have a layperson proofread your report. If he doesn't understand it, rewrite it until he does. The cheat sheet.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning report will be dead on arrival if the reporter doesn't have time to write the story. A press release is a ready-made news story that can be used as is or used as the foundation for the reporter's own story. In effect, it's a cheat sheet. The following are excerpts from the press release that accompanied our "Review of Pension Payments to Deceased Beneficiaries," a report released in July 2002. PHILADELPHIA, PA — "I see dead people . . . and they're collecting city pension checks!" That's the bottom line of a special audit released today by the Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel. The Controller set out to determine if the city's Board of Pensions had adequate controls over thousands of pension checks mailed to city pensioners or deposited directly into their bank accounts. What he learned was surprising. . . . “The more than 60,000 members of our pension system, who worked hard throughout their careers providing a public service, need and deserve proper safeguards for their money," remarked Controller Saidel. "I hope this report will lead to improved and strengthened controls over these funds as well as vigorous investigation and prosecution of those who have stolen money."
A press release includes editorial comment, the controller's personal reaction to the findings. The release provides answers to the questions the reporters would ask, if they had time to ask them. It frequently includes a hook, an angle the reporter can use to sell the story. In this case, "I see dead people . . . and they're collecting city pension checks." Some of the material in a press release, the hook, for example, might be out of place in an audit report; but it's not out of place in a news story, which is what we're presenting here. Communicating with the citizens in the future Every process aimed at developing new ideas begins with the same mandate: Think outside the box. The problem is that auditors invented the box, sealed the lid, and reinforced the structure with concrete. As a group, we're resistant to change. But if we don't change, we'll be pushed out of the way. Here are some thoughts and ideas about what we will need to do to connect with the citizens in the future. The Internet. Many if not most audit shops are now posting their reports to a website—their own or that of their jurisdiction. The Internet provides incredible access to audit reports, but the public still needs to know there's something to access. Getting the report to the major media will be the primary goal for the foreseeable future. New skills.
Most auditors are not photographers. Ninety percent of the shots they bring back are unusable: they're too dark; the image isn't centered; or the item of interest is so far back in the frame or surrounded by clutter that the viewer could find Waldo before finding what the auditor wants him to see. The auditors of the future will have to be trained in photography. And, while we're on the subject, they will have to be trained in the rudiments of filmmaking. The Internet now makes it possible to show our audience film footage. In the years to come, auditors will have to spend some time over at the School of Communications learning how to shoot film and present themselves in front of the camera with usable narrative.
Timeliness and reliability.
The auditing profession has long realized that for information to be useful it must be both timely and reliable. The trick is finding the balance. If we wait until we're absolutely sure the data is correct, it may no longer be of any use. The government auditing profession will have to shift the balance from reliability to timeliness, if it wants to survive. We will have to risk being wrong occasionally, or not quite right. Policy decisions are going to be made with or without our input. If too many are made without our input, the profession will become marginalized to the point of extinction. Streamlining the report.
An interesting development in report synopsis is the GAO's "Highlights page." This is a single sheet that summarizes a report that may run hundreds of pages. To see a highlights page, try this title in Google: “DOD Should Reconsider Decision to Increase F/A-22 Production Rates While Development Risks Continue.” In four short paragraphs GAO lays out the key points; and, for the reader who needs to know more, the page includes the web address for the full report, the name of a contact person, and that person's phone number and e-mail address. It may seem counterintuitive, but with audit findings, the less information you give the reader, the more information he is likely to get. In the future, a highlights page, or something like it, may not only be prepared for every major report, but it may be circulated in lieu of the report. Conclusion Communicating audit results to citizens is not only an effective way to ensure the implementation of audit recommendations, it may be a matter of survival. But to get to the citizens, you must first get to the media, and that means competing for print space and air time. To win the media's attention, you will need a dynamite product that's eye-catching and easy to use, that is, a report that's stimulating, requires no translation, and comes with its own set of Cliffs Notes. Communicating with citizens in the future will mean learning new skills, trying new means of distribution, and changing the way we think about our product. Change will be difficult; but if we don't change, more adaptable life forms will take our place.
Mike Egan is an audit administrator with the Philadelphia City Controller's Office where he has been employed for past 24 years. The opinions expressed in this article are those of Mr. Egan and do not represent the opinions of the City Controller's Office or the city controller. Comments can be directed to Mr. Egan at
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