The old double standard

As I was driving home today and listening to the radio, 2 news items came on back to back that caught my interest. I have to wonder if someone at the radio station put the stories one after another like that to see if anyone would catch on, I like to think they did.

The first was about a local government issue. The year end for Government is always March 31 each year. Within a few months of that the defecit for last year was established at $11 million. However over the year that figure became cloudy and yesterday (10 months after the fact) the Auditors office had determined it was actually $125 millon.

With the Auditors report came information of why this had occurred. The reasons included failure to follow procedure, lack of accountability, inadaquate internal controls, and breaking rules. There is also suspicion that some individuals connected with a deal Government had put together had somehow ended up with $24 million dollars in their pockets that they were not entitled to. This was followed by a Ministerial interview in which the blame for all of these woes were pointed towards everyone but those in charge.

After the interview we moved on to the next story. It seems that an investment firm that manages $800,000.000.00 has been suspended from opening new investment accounts in this area. The firm is being investigated and the Directors could face some criminal charges because they were the guys in charge. What was this all about----- it seems they failed to follow procedure, had not filed accountability documentation, had not demonstrated adequate internal controls and were suspected of breaking SEC rules.

Money is contributed to both from the public, in one case in the form of taxes and in the other voluntarily, but the bottom line is that responsible management of assets is expected in both instances. But my guess is that the politicians will get off the hook without investigation and the money managers will have every rock they ever pissed on turned over and examined carefully.

Struck me as kind of funny, in a sad way.