08 April 2008

Shocker.

Hold on to your seat for this stunning report:
The D.C. government has serious flaws in its handling of finances in the public schools, Medicaid and the Office of Tax and Revenue, according to an independent audit to be released tomorrow.
No kidding.

So after all the headlines of the fall in which the DC tax office scandal grew from under 10 million to somewhere closer to 50 million, an independent auditor has found problems with the way DC government handles its finances...you don't say.

So it seems like no news, sort of dog bites man stuff, until you read on and realize that you can apparently lose 50 million in an embezzlement scheme and still pass an audit:
Overall, BDO auditors gave the city a "clean" audit for fiscal 2007, D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi said.
In the audit for fiscal 2006, only the school system's financial controls were cited for material weakness, and the District received no citations in the two previous years. Furthermore, the 2007 audit found six "reportable conditions" -- one step removed from a material weakness.

Say what? How reliable is an audit -- mandated by Congress annually -- that fails to turn up such gross corruption as has been found in the DC Tax Office, and furthermore still passes the District even when everyone in the world who can read a newspaper could quickly learn that the DC Tax Office's financial controls are several steps beyond "material weakness," not one step short?

Sounds like social promotion to me.

2 comments:

lacochran's evil twin said...

Erm, technically, they know where the money went. So all the inflows match all the outflows which would explain passing the audit. It's just one of the outflow labels reads "Embezzling Crapweasels", yes?

Anonymous said...

How reliable is an audit -- mandated by Congress annually -- that fails to turn up such gross corruption as has been found in the DC Tax Office...

It boggles the mind, doesn't it? (Or maybe it doesn't, but it does boggle mine.)