Wednesday, April 22, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.
IT'S time that the city of Las Vegas changes the way it conducts and reviews internal audits of its government operations.
Currently, the city auditor reviews government finances and operations and then reports the results to the city manager, who has the responsibility to validate them. Under such a system, the city manager may not pass on all audits to the City Council. If members of the City Council are kept in the dark about how taxpayer money is being spent, then how are we as citizens supposed to know what is going on?
Another important issue is who the auditor should report to: the city manager, the City Council or an outside group. Now, the auditor reports to the city manager. That is the same arrangement as in some other municipalities, such as in Henderson and North Las Vegas, with a notable exception: In Las Vegas, the auditor can be fired by the city manager but in North Las Vegas and Henderson it requires a majority vote to remove the auditor.
All of these issues came to the forefront after Las Vegas City Auditor Susan Toohey was fired without explanation. The SUN's Denise Cardinal then revealed that a number of audit recommendations had not been acted on promptly. Toohey felt there was a conflict in the city manager having the authority to fire audit division employees. She believed a better way was to have the auditor report to a board of citizens. Deputy City Manager Steve Houchens is recommending that the auditor report to an independent audit committee made up two City Council members, the city manager and an appointed citizen.
Audits conducted by outside groups tend to be trusted and carry more clout than do internal audits. But internal audits are valuable tools for municipalities and state agencies, providing them with a different way on how to make government work better.
The bottom line is that there should be a buffer between an internal auditor and his direct boss. Unless this is done, there will always be a suspicion that the public is not getting a straight answer on how government is doing. The Las Vegas City Audit Division should report to an outside, independent group as Houchens is suggesting so that the audit division can enjoy the freedom necessary to do its job aggressively and objectively.
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