True government accountability brings progress

Accountability is not the solution. It's the problem.

Utah legislators learn quickly it's great to write laws that give something to someone but not that take something away when things go wrong. The latter requires asking hard questions. That's accountability. As stewards of our public institutions, one of the most important responsibilities lawmakers have, yet mostly neglect, is legislative oversight. Every year, we get deceived by many of our lawmakers who, when faced with a failure in state government, show outrage, demand accountability, then pass laws so it appears they did something about it. Therein lies the problem.

The Legislature is to government institutions what a corporate board of directors is to a private enterprise. It is responsible for making sure the organization is carrying out its mission, monitoring progress and effectiveness, and being accountable to the stockholders. With public institutions, taxpayers are the stockholders — not the "stakeholders" who are the vested interest groups, including agency bureaucrats.

When legislators fail to carry out their oversight responsibilities, they become the problem and compound it by passing more laws. By their neglect, they trigger an avalanche of more regulations, requiring more bureaucrats to write them, adding to an already bloated government. Then at election time, we see candidates calling for less government and fewer regulations. It doesn't make sense, but then it's only taxpayer money that is at stake. In government, there is no bottom line, no product you can see, and the only thing reported is the process, not the results. State departments publish annual reports stating their goals with extensive detail of what programs they started, the partnerships and coordination with other agencies; however, if you look closely, they do not tell the results of what they are mandated to produce, costs or dates for completion.

One must pose the question: If there is no way to monitor progress, how can a department be held accountable? And why do legislators continue to fund those agencies? Accountability, with no way to monitor or measure results, is a sham on taxpayers. Under our system of government, taxpayers must depend upon the Legislature to assure our government is working in an efficient and cost-effective manner.