Trust – but verify.
-- Ronald Reagan
The revelation of a $ 53 million embezzlement by the treasurer and comptroller of the city of Dixon Illinois – home of the 40th American president – once again brings this to the fore:
“Why are the accountants still so bewildered that there should be an ‘expectations gap’?”
According to her criminal indictment released on May 1, Rita Crundwell went undetected since 1990 in accumulating all the appurtenances of a life of rural luxury – not only the typical clothing and jewelry, but trucks and trailers, Liberty Coach motor home and Ford Thunderbird convertible -- all supporting her sideline prominence in the boots-and-bling world of quarterhorse breeders (here).
Extractions of that magnitude, from the coffers of a city with an annual budget of only $ 8 to $ 9 million, might have required her full-time devotion to shoveling the cash with both hands. But the self-efficient Ms. Crundwell did not scruple to observe four full weeks of paid vacation each year, and was evidently only caught out when she extended her absence to an additional twelve weeks.
Separation of employees’ duties? Back-up authority that someone else should glance at the city’s checkbook? Allowing her family members to pick up the city’s mail while she was on her holidays? Could the demands of minding the city’s affairs be so simple, naive and blasé, even in the exurban Midwest?
As for the expected queries (here and here) – what about the gatekeepers at the corral?
A large regional accounting firm is reported to have done compilation services for the city since 2006, having done audits in prior years.[1] But the distinction has so far not been explored.
Which, borrowing a metaphor from Ms. Crundwell’s expensive equestrian hobby, is to beat a sad and very dead horse. Because, as the professionals are in the process of learning to their sorrow, simple proximity and association are enough to attract whole worlds of grief.
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board – source of auditing standards on a global basis – on March 16 issued a new version of guidance on the performance of compilations:
"Since a compilation engagement is not an assurance engagement, a compilation engagement does not require the practitioner to verify the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by management for the compilation, or otherwise to gather evidence to express an audit opinion or a review conclusion on the preparation of the financial information."
The IAASB also speaks to the intended use of compiled financial statements, however, posing the question whether:
"External parties other than the intended users of the compiled financial information are likely to associate the practitioner with the financial information, and there is a risk that the level of the practitioner’s involvement with the information may be misunderstood …"
What the IAASB does not offer – understandably, considering the many settings in which full-blown audits are not worth the cost or effort involved – is aide to either the profession or the user community on a necessary risk-based inquiry:
“Just because a service can be done, does it make any sense and should it be done?”
The accounting profession, mistakenly relying on disclosure of the limits on what a compilation report does or does not say, has traditionally looked on that work as low risk – which it mostly is. But consider the environment, and the typical level and quality of competence, governance and integrity in municipal government. What level of confidence should with safety be routinely reposed in those entrusted with management of a small city’s financial resources?
A typical compilation report – while offering no opinion – does recite that the accountant has performed with appropriate skill, ethics and the exercise of appropriate professional judgment. But that is all it takes to get burned.
I have tried to get across, both to my students in Risk Management and to my friends and clients in the profession, that for one caught holding an empty gasoline can, while standing next to a suspicious conflagration, it is not easy to avoid suspicion of arson. The explanation goes down hard, that the container was an innocent impulse purchase at the local hardware store.
As both an exercise for law and business students, and a message in the real world: there is no harm in not wearing a seatbelt, most of the time – or in not locking the barn door. Except for the rare time when it isn’t okay – and then it really matters. A long record of “being lucky” or a history of “getting by” counts for nothing when a bad event exposes the devastation wrought by casual habits.
How accountable the good townsfolk of Dixon will hold their city fathers for the quality of their stewardship – and whatever the exit cost may ultimately be, for a blinkered exercise in the assessment of risk and exposure to Crundwell’s plundering – it is once more made crystal clear that the accounting profession continues to market services that are under-comprehended and over-sold.
Thanks for joining this dialogue. Comments are welcome, and subscription is easy and free, both at the Main page.
Comments