Over the years, I have weighed in often on behalf of municipal/local government internal auditors who have been victims of the wrath of bureaucrats or politicians. I’ve long asserted that auditing in government requires navigating the “theater of politics.” Sadly, the stage at the local level tends to specialize in melodrama. I have called out retaliation against government auditors in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Tennessee, to name a few. The latest city where oversight has gone to die appears to be Jackson, Miss. (population 150,000).
Capturing my attention was a strange news report with the headline, “Jackson’s Internal Audit Division Disbanded.” I wanted to learn more, but the further I read, the more mysterious the story became. According to news reports, Jackson’s internal audit function ceased to exist after the mayor’s administration failed to present a budget to the City Council for approval. My first thought was that an administrative error must have occurred; someone simply forgot to include internal audit when the city’s budget went forward.