Most everyone cringes at the thought of going through an audit. Even if you have nothing to hide, it’s a pain to have to produce all the documents needed to prove that.
So safe to say few of us would order one of ourselves if we possessed that authority.
Yet one elected official has done just that: State Auditor Shad White announced Monday the results of a “limited internal control and compliance review management report” that he had conducted of his office. He posted results online, and while there were minor findings over things like bank reconciliations and expense reports, nothing of serious concern jumped out. Yet it sent an important message that the man in charge of watching over Mississippi’s use of taxpayer dollars is not above the law.
“The professionals in our compliance audit division had never done a compliance audit of our own office, and it had been decades since a full audit had been done of the office,” White said in a news release. “We conducted this audit to hold ourselves to the same standard we hold everyone else in state government to. I pledged when I came into office that we would audit ourselves and publish the report, warts and all, for the voters to see.”
It’s a needed change following the tenure of Stacey Pickering, who had left in July to become director of the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board. Some of Pickering’s decisions as auditor had raised eyebrows, including questionable dealings involving campaign finances and open meetings laws. The state auditor should “abstain from all appearance of evil,” to borrow a phrase from King James. That’s something Bryant, who served well during his time as state auditor, knows well. So the governor’s choice of White to serve the remainder of Pickering’s term was a good one.
White, a Jones County native, has an impressive education pedigree — Rhodes Scholar, Harvard law degree — and was directing a conservative government watchdog organization, the Mississippi Justice Institute, when Bryant tapped him. He also possesses an earnest boyishness that editorial cartoonist Ricky Nobile captured when he portrayed White as Deputy Barney Fife. Hey, at least the “Andy Griffith Show” character took his job in public service seriously, even if he overdid it at times to comedic effect.
Since being appointed, White has already announced several notable cases that took guts. That included going after the estate of the former longtime Wilkinson County chancery clerk and calling for better spending procedures at community colleges. No one in Mississippi has more grassroots political power than chancery clerks and community colleges, so taking them to task shows that White isn’t scared of stepping on toes when it comes to how taxpayer dollars are spent. In a state with a long history of insider dealings and using public office for personal enrichment, that’s a welcome sign.
Expect to hear the name of the man who audited himself for a long time. White could be this generation’s William Winter: a native son who seeks public office for the right reasons and earns respect from all sides for his integrity and intelligence.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at 601.736.2611 or csmith@columbianprogress.com.
