NLPES Conference Notes

Mark Funkhouser, City Auditor for Kansas City, Missouri.
Saturday, September 8, 2001

Mr. Funkhouser’s presentation topic was "Audit, Evaluation, and Politics". In the presentation, Mr. Funkhouser touched on three topics, the defense of "politics", the connection between successful audits and politics, and how to be more effective, politically.

Mr. Funkhouser described politics as always being under attack, however, it is an important matter, since politics is the driving force of how your streets get paved, how you are protected with fire and police service, and many other services that we depend upon. Political decisions directly affects all of us and our families. Mr. Funkhouser stated that politics is not inherently bad and corrupt, and gave two examples of lifetime politicians that had great impact upon our society, Abraham Lincoln and Sir Winston Churchill.

Mr. Funkhouser stated that successful audits are inherently political, and gave various reasons supporting this statement, including;

successful audits should have impact within the organization and help stimulate changes in the processes and functionality of government,
successful audits will influence the decisions and the allocation of resources made by government,
the audit gives knowledge, and that in turn gives varying degrees of power, and
audits can make pubic, information regarding the government agencies and processes.

Mr. Funkhouser stated that conflict is a hallmark of the political process. He described the difference between single-loop learning and double-loop learning, and how double loop learning calls for dramatic improvement and substantial change in processes, which is almost always accompanied by substantial conflict.

Mr. Funkhouser analogized having audit impact to hitting a target with a weapon, by describing audit impact as a function of three variables;

the rate of reports (rate of fire),
the size and scope of the reports (caliber of bullet), and
the target of the reports (aim).

To be politically effective, Mr. Funhouser stated to focus on values. As auditors we should look at the efficiency (capacity to do good), effectiveness (ability to solve problems), and the equity (allocation of resources and power) of government.

Mr. Funkhouser also gave suggestions for managing ones own behavior, including;

understand and respect what you are doing,
always be trustworthy, honest, brave, and truthful,
master the written and spoken word,
stay within the four corners of the audit report, and
have courage.

The presentation concluded with various questions and answers.