When folks talk about accounting generally they think about
business and corporate accounting, and yes that is a huge topic with
corporate audits, SEC rules, Sarbanes Oxley, and the latest new
accounting rules. Still, government accounting is very important too,
along with Government like organizations, yes, I speak of Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae. Now then, we have the Government Accounting Office, GAO,
and the OMD - and many other accounting agencies to keep a check on our
money.
And that's just at the Federal Level, as the same thing
goes for our States and Counties. Yes, and our cities, many of which
have millions of people in them. Take the New York City for instance,
where does all that money go, how is it spent, and how is it all
accounted for, or is it. Well, this is a troubling question as New York
City recently discovered. For instance there was an interesting piece in
the New York Times recently.
The article was tiled; "New York
City Payroll Accounting Chief Resigns" by Serge F. Kovaleski and John
Eligon, which was published on December 23, 2010. In this article it
told of how the Mayor's office canned the accounting chief due to a
"Federal Corruption Case" and the administrator "said he was leaving as
executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration effective
Dec. 31. Mr. Bondy, who has not been charged, was suspended without pay.
His biography was removed from the agency's Web site earlier this
week."
Question is or was he a fall guy to the gross accounting
irregularities, was he caught up in union politics, or was there
something else. You can bet that if the Feds step in something is going
on, or the politics have reached epic proportions. Sure, it's nearly an
impossible task to keep track of it all. But if that happened in a
company the State would come shut down the company or impose huge fines.
Well, it appears there are just as many problems in our public sector
as in our largest companies involved in the last financial crisis.
Indeed,
we might all suspect as more cities get closer to bankruptcy, and have
their muni-bonds close to default that the veil will be uncovered on
more and more accounting irregularities, in more and more cities across
the nation, as they so desperately attempt to make the impossible
balance out, and make sense. If you have additional comments and
question along this line of thinking, then I hope you will please
consider all this.