Auditable Offenses

State Auditor Brian Sonntag has been lauded as bringing accountability back to Olympia with his enforcement of Tim Eyman’s performance audits initiative.

While Sonntag can run for his fifth term on the voter-favored mantra of “accountability,” it is worth remembering that our state auditor is not a CPA, making him unqualified to perform financial audits, and has failed to follow national standards on performance audits, arguably making him unqualified to perform those either.

What he has done is used his audit reports to aim overly broad criticisms at already unpopular agencies (transportation, for example), catapulting himself into the limelight and winning more power and adoration for his office. While an auditor ought to criticize where criticism is warranted, the purpose of a performance audit is to provide management with an action plan to fix specific documented problems. Sonntag’s audits are sweeping indictments with little focus on management controls, little evidence based on paper trails, and they provide little information about specific management tasks that will fix the problem and improve the agency.

But this is Washington. Sonntag’s record of one-sided arguments, his increasing reach and power in Olympia, and the press adulation that envelops him should allow an easy reelection to his fifth term. That and the fact that he doesn't have any opponents.