| Written by Gary Blackmer,
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This 20th anniversary of our association is a good time to consider the progress ALGA has made toward achieving its purposes.
The First 20 Years
Here are the elements of our mission set forth 20 years ago and my brief comments on each:
Bringing together professional local government auditors
Before ALGA, local auditors were isolated and yet we were struggling with many common challenges. We had so much to share with each other about our successes, strategies, and challenges but no common grounds. ALGA, an organization of, by, and for local government auditors was a fundamental need. The Membership Committee was created and has been successful in ensuring that every local auditor knows about and considers joining our association.
Providing opportunities for the free exchange of information
ALGA has many channels of communication among auditors every day. Besides the conferences, ALGA provides the Quarterly, the Listserv, website, the biennial benchmarking survey, and the directory to put auditors in close touch with each other and their ideas. The Communications Committee was also created to enhance the exchange of information.
Offering pertinent education and training
Over the past several years ALGA’s Education Committee has done a great job of bringing training to different regions of the country. The classes are all full and rated very well. Again, the Annual Conference plays a key part for many members in meeting their required continuing professional education. Without ALGA, local auditors had very limited choices for training.
Improving the quality of auditing in local government
ALGA has many strategies at work to achieve this objective. Model Legislation and many of its reports, as well as the Advocacy and Peer Review Committees’ efforts have profoundly affected the creation of new audit shops as well as their day-to-day audit efforts. The annual Knighton Awards also recognize the best audits of the year, offering an extra reward for quality work.
Providing a forum for local government auditing issues
The Professional Issues Committee and our liaisons with other professional associations have influenced auditing policy and standards at all levels of government. Everything about our conferences and communication have addressed many emerging audit issues through the two decades.
Encouraging and upholding the highest standards of professional ethics
ALGA’s role in this realm is filled by Mark Funkhouser, who served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards. Mark successfully advocated for a new section of the 2007 standards on ethics.
The Next 20 Years
It is also timely to look toward the next two decades of the Association, using my crystal ball to spin out my fears and fantasies.
The increase in Federal taxes to address the national financial crisis will put even greater pressure on local governments to pay for their aging infrastructure and economic development. Audits for efficiencies will be in much demand. And the economic decline of print and media journalism will leave the public desperate for an honest and impartial voice on government, and will continue to make auditing a valued and respected profession.
Auditors have never doubted that an independent, quality audit shop will make its government run better. The federal government will formally recognize this connection by giving an advantage in federal funding and grant awards to agencies that undergo routine local performance auditing. With this incentive, many more cities and counties will consider creating an audit function, and the emerging leaders in ALGA will have the opportunity to build and manage a new audit shop.
David Walker will be on the cover of Time Magazine in 2009. The 2012 Version of the Yellow Book will consist of 67 pages of clear, concise and wise guidance.
The National Audit Forum, which contributed the seed money to start ALGA, will continue to be a common ground for federal, state, and local auditors but the GAO will further cut back on funding for the regional audit forums. This will create an opportunity for ALGA to step up and organize regional members for conferences and training. State and Federal auditors will be invited to attend.
Good performance auditing has largely been learned through experience rather than any degrees offered by universities. However, ALGA will collaborate with state and federal audit agencies and a university to develop an online curriculum for a degree in local government performance auditing that will be offered to its members and the next generation of auditors.
While its training will help fill the workforce ranks, ALGA faces some loss of focus as its membership grows. Not all the new audit organizations are good, which forces ALGA to decide whether to be an accreditation or member-first organization, and whether to develop supplemental local auditing standards. The controversy continues as some members argue against those standards they can’t meet.
HBO develops a television series about a big city performance audit shop and ALGA members are put on salary to develop scripts and advise on proper methods for interviewing and development of findings. Unfortunately the character playing me gets whacked by a utility worker in the second show.
There will also be the pull of international interests, which offer other successful models of auditing. ALGA’s willingness to recognize multiple standards and practices among its members will weaken its ability to advocate auditing principles, make it difficult to offer practical training to many of its members, and dilute its purpose.
ALGA will increase its dues as marketers withdraw financial support of conferences and publications, realizing that members are offering the vendors no special advantages in their purchasing decisions, as it should be.
Over 400 members will attend ALGA’s 40th Annual Conference in Philadelphia. They will again seek out their comrades to share the success of sound findings and quality recommendations, the desire to further improve, their wealth of knowledge and experience -- which all makes up for the intervening year of loneliness of the good auditor.
Gary Blackmer is the elected Portland City Auditor, ALGA Webmaster, and a past ALGA President.
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Opportunities for Improvement