Organizing Committees for Transparency
In an effort to educate those wishing to take a closer look at local government, Dr. Fusco, former superintendent in Branford, Connecticut put together a manual on forming a Citizen’s Audit Committee (CAC).
Dr. Fusco’s work in combination with the Yankee Institute reinforces the need to form citizen committees in order to tackle larger problems within local and state government. Too often investigative citizens tackle issues as single units but there are huge benefits of combining efforts. Simply put, more ground can be covered than any one individual is able to accomplish, especially when dealing with the complexities of local governments or school boards.
“A Citizens Audit Committee can do what school boards and town officials are either unwilling to do for political reasons or unable to do because of a lack of skill, information, and time.”
An additional benefit of CACs is that they will provide, “independent and objective oversight to budgeting and spending practices by assessing whether there is efficiency or effectiveness.”
This document was also written in order to help explain confusing terminology, which often is where concerned taxpayers end up hitting a roadblock. Even motivated individuals can get tripped up with the jargon used in many of the government forms.
The report also provides strategies of where to begin to look for discrepancies and then ultimately what citizens should do once they have found meaningful data. Reaching those who can utilize the findings becomes the next important step so that problems can be amended and preventative measures can be put in place for the future.
Through the efforts of the Yankee Institute more citizens will have the tools to effectively expose problems that exist in public offices and combat corruption by alerting those who pay for it- the everyday taxpayer.
