State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones says one of the most effective ways for Oklahoma to tackle financial mismanagement is to set up a joint accountability system.
Jones said it would embed his auditors within state agencies to assist internal auditors, a practice requested by and practiced at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission since 2013. Lawmakers have considered proposals to expand the practice, but those measures have stalled.
"One of the big problems we have in the state of Oklahoma right now is internal auditors are afraid to report things because they'll lose their job, or they don't know what to do because they're not properly supervised," Jones said. "And we've even had situations where internal auditors have figured out the flaws with the internal controls and been the ones that embezzled."
Jones says the current system has taken away his office’s ability to inspect agencies, with his dwindling staff struggling to keep pace with the audit schedule set in state law.
The State Auditor and Inspector’s Office staff is down 30 percent and its budget down 40 percent over the past 10 years. Big workloads and salaries peaking at $36,000 have translated into a high turnover rate among the state’s financial watchdogs, who must have accounting degrees.
"We lose about one out of four auditors. For a while, it was going to work for other state agencies. Now, it's going to work for industry," Jones said. "And once an auditor comes in and gets trained, within two years, many of them are leaving, working for private industry, making $10,000 to $15,000 a year more."
Jones said since a high of 72, the number of employees in his state agency division has dropped to 22.
And while the concept that fraud, waste and abuse in state government costs Oklahoma $1 billion a year is being bandied about the capitol, Jones disagrees. Fraud, waste and abuse aren’t all state auditors look for; for example, a Department of Corrections audit recommended the agency be given more money and the state adopt a smart-on-crime approach in order to reduce costs going forward.
"Some people don't want to hear that. All they want to hear is, 'Oh, look. We found waste.' It's disturbing that there were instances that happened in one particular agency, but people are throwing numbers out there that they have no idea where those are coming from," Jones said.
Jones noted the state health department’s financial problems happened with seven auditors working there, bolstering his push to have state auditors embedded with agencies' internal auditors.
