Government auditing, an ancient practice with roots in accounting, focuses on evaluating financial, operational, and performance information provided by government agencies. Government sector audits can not only reveal waste, fraud, and abuse, but also recommend reforms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agency programs and operations. All of this saves taxpayers money and ensures they get value for their money. GAO recently reported that its 2023 audit showed improvements and saved taxpayers more than $70 billion.
Michigan’s OAG similarly has a long track record of identifying problems in state government and working with term-limited legislators to remind them of their oversight responsibilities. But now OAG is under attack from both sides of the political divide. Apparently in response to Democrats claiming that OAG has shown partisan bias in its handling of recent audits involving political issues such as the Flint water crisis and the 2020 election, the Whitmer administration He proposed cutting OAG’s budget by nearly a third.
At the same time, House Republican Leader Matt Hall called for an audit of state programs that help legal immigrants find housing, arguing that the program helps immigrants who entered the country illegally and sought asylum avoid deportation. A request was made to OAG. His audit request ignores OAG guidance that “allegations without a sufficient factual basis generally do not justify the use of our investigative resources.”
Governor Whitmer’s proposed cuts and Hall’s baseless audit request highlight how partisanship can distort government oversight. Instead, Michigan leaders should work with OAG to strengthen the Legislature’s ability to conduct oversight that emphasizes facts over politics. OAG, along with Michigan’s other nonpartisan analytical organizations, including the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies and the Legislative Office, provides critical information and expertise to Congress and the public. There is no room for partisanship in the activities of these organizations, and there is no need for executive or legislative leaders to seek to use them for partisan purposes.
Rather than cutting OAG’s budget or playing politics with audit requests, Congress should protect OAG’s independence and work with OAG and other analytical organizations to provide facts about the agency’s performance and the effectiveness of the laws it passes. An informative review should be conducted based on the by the legislature.
To move in that direction, Michigan needs to have a balanced superpower in the Legislature, as proposed last term by state Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) and state Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Vt.). A bicameral partisan oversight committee should be created. Congress could prioritize audit requests made by the new oversight committee or those initiated by the OAG itself. Congress could also staff this bicameral committee and other committees involved in oversight by shifting some bipartisan professional staff from bill-writing to research roles.
Giving the Legislature a high-profile, bipartisan, bicameral oversight commission with the authority and ability to work with the OAG and its counterparts would move the Michigan Legislature away from partisan pursuits and keep the government in line with all It will help you shift towards fulfilling your obligation to make things work for others. It would also counter the dangerous trend of politicizing the audit function, which often provides Michiganders with a factual foundation on which to understand their government and trust in our democracy.
