Jones Goes Off on Fallin Veto
Will it be a one day story or does this have legs? Gary Jones rarely tires when he’s on a mission. This mission is all about accountability.
As Pat McGuigan reported, “Gov. Mary Fallin wanted to consolidate Oklahoma’s half-dozen employee pension funds, but that did not happen this year. And that likely contributed to her decision to veto a reform that would have shifted some government employees away from the defined-benefit system pension that many analysts say is unsustainable. An attempt to override her veto may seem like a long-shot, but is not out of the question.”
It’s not out of the question at all. Below is today’s press release from Auditor Jones:
OKLAHOMA CITY – State Auditor Gary Jones is taking issue with Governor Mary Fallin’s veto of SB907 on the stated basis that the legislation is not consistent with a commitment to create a more streamlined and efficient state government.
“I fully support efforts to create efficiencies in state government,” Jones said. “It is flawed logic to think this will occur without a systematic review of state government performance conducted under government auditing standards by qualified professionals. Different people have been giving this issue lip service for 20 years. This veto really amounts to little more than ensuring that nothing is really going to change. Our office is about holding government accountable to the taxpayer and I would hope other officials would embrace that concept.”
SB907 created the Joint Legislative Committee on Accountability. This collaborative effort would have used performance audits of state agencies and programs to truly measure the effectiveness and efficiencies in the delivery of government services.
“The governor called the bill a duplication of effort and points to two phantom legislative committees which haven’t existed in at least a decade as a way to achieve the intent of this bill,” Jones said. “You can’t have a duplication of effort when no effort has been made in over 10 years.”
The State Auditor noted the constitutional duties of his office in expressing his disappointment over the veto.
“The State Auditor is charged with ensuring transparency and accountability in the expenditure of public funds,” Jones said. “I promised the people of Oklahoma that I would do everything possible to root out government fraud, waste and abuse and I have every intention of keeping that promise. Performance Audits are an invaluable tool to identify waste, redundancy, and ineffective government programs. They provide lawmakers the information they need to judiciously evaluate the legitimacy of expenditures as they seek to reduce the size of government, improve program effectiveness, and efficiently deliver government services.”
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