Meeting Recap
by Rick Osborn

Chris Cortines, Deputy Director, Washington State Auditor’s Office, Performance audit Division, provided a presentation concerning Performance Audits and Performance Measurements.

He addressed such questions as to “how does a government prepare for a performance audit?  He indicated that the actual question is how does a particular government measure their own performance.  Each government measures themselves in some manner.  Since they do, then the State Auditor’s Office will start with those internal measures.  They will compare those to industry standards and “best practices”.  Often the challenge for a particular government is creating an inventory of those measurements and a list of the staff that prepares and analyzes the results.

The State Auditor’s Office will also compare the internal measures to the expectations of the constituency in order to determine if the citizens are view the measures being used as indicative of the services or results they expect.

Finally, these are evaluated for the 3 “E’s” – economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

State Auditor’s Office uses the Yellow Book, as well as, the above measures to evaluate a government’s performance.

The result is supposed to be an audit report that provides the agency guidance and suggestions concerning what they are measuring and how they are performing.  Additionally, the report will point out potential areas for saving taxpayer dollars.

These objectives were brought into focus from discussions concerning the results of specific audit, including the recently issued Port of Seattle audit.

Mr. Cortines’s presentation was cut a little short due to his having to return to Olympia for a meeting concern the results of the Port audit.

The meeting continued with a presentation by Rick Osborn, Chapter President, and Internal Auditor for Sound Transit.  His presentation was given from the perspective of the “auditee”.  This developed into a lively discussion with participation from those present including, Dave Hammond, Internal Auditor, from the Washington State Ferry System, who provided input concerning State Auditor’s Office contractors audit process and results, based upon the Ernst & Young contracted audit of the Ferry System.  Finally, we heard from Lloyd Hara, Chapter member, and present Commissioner of the Port of Seattle.  The exchanges were insightful and provided an interesting perspective.