Doing What's Right

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the Conference on Public Service and the Law at the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville, VA on March 17, 2006. Soon after I came to GAO in 1998, the agency officially adopted a set of three core values: accountability, integrity, and reliability. These core values supplement the requirements established by law and by professional standards, such as the Code of Professional Responsibility for our lawyers and Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards for our auditors and analysts. Accountability describes what GAO does. Simply put, we help to ensure the accountability of executive branch programs and agencies to Congress and the American people. Integrity describes the character of GAO's people. On every assignment, GAO employees are required to be professional, objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair, and balanced. If fact, they have to certify this on every job. Reliability refers to the quality of GAO's work. Reliability is why members of Congress from both sides of the aisle regularly use GAO reports and other products as the basis for hearings, press conferences, floor debates, and legislation. Anyone who reads a GAO study can and should have confidence in the facts and analysis it contains. In fact, two recent peer reviews have cited GAO for its outstanding work and quality assurance procedures. Discussions about accountability in government all too often focus on infuriating cases of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. We've all read news accounts of federal workers who abuse their government credit cards or contractors who overbill the government. It's also become obvious that the government has been issuing far too many contracts and assistance payments for Hurricane Katrina relief that just don't pass the "straight-face" test. Today, our world is vastly different from what it was 50 years ago or even 20 years ago. We face serious long-term challenges in several areas, some of them unprecedented in their size, scope, complexity, and potential impact. Unfortunately, several of these issues are getting too little attention, provoking too little concern, and prompting too little action. Way too much of government is on autopilot and based on social, economic, national security, and other conditions that existed when Dwight Eisenhower and Jack Kennedy were in the White House. GAO has a large and growing body of work on the government's relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts. In fact, we now have nearly 40 different jobs under way in this area. Katrina and Rita put the capabilities of many government entities to the test. A few of them came through with flying colors, but many of them, notably Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), fell far short of getting even a passing grade. This is particularly disturbing given that many of the current response problems GAO has identified are very similar to ones that we identified back in 1992 following Hurricane Andrew. These include problems in vital areas like emergency communications and supplies and equipment. Any government that values ethics and integrity needs to have a system of checks and balances. On the federal level, GAO plays an important oversight role. By providing Congress with the best available information on government programs and policies, GAO's actions help to ensure that these programs and the officials running them comply with the law and that every government official must answer to the American people. The final topic I'd like to address tonight is the importance of public service. The simple but powerful truth is that effective and responsive government requires a first-rate workforce. To tackle current and emerging issues, government needs top talent at all levels, men and women who are able to think strategically and creatively while acting decisively, ethically, and with compassion.