If I ran a local tap room and I was looking for someone to make sure that my books were on the up and up I would look for someone who was well-schooled in the principles of accounting. Someone who had a background in numbers and the upkeep of my accounts.
If I sat on the board of a nonprofit, say a land trust, I would want to make sure that the auditor that we brought in each year to prepare our financial statements and signed off on them had had a passing familiarity with what they were doing.
If I had to choose someone who I would, without a doubt, be able to trust to tell me definitely where every dollar went in my business, or non-profit or lemonade stand I would want someone who has done this before. Sadly, our new Legislature does not have the same concern for the way the State and its resources are accounted for as they might their own businesses.
By the time that you read this column the new members of the 130th Maine Legislature will have met in Augusta to choose their leaders and the people who will become the new officers of the State. Those positions being secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general and state auditor.
This year, unlike in years past, there was a candidate for one of these offices that does not meet even the minimum basic requirements for the job that they have been elected to fulfill. And our senators and representatives seem okay with that.
Matt Dunlap, the outgoing secretary of state, ran for and was elected to serve as the next state auditor on Wednesday. The auditor position is an important one. The office that he will oversee has a great deal of power. In addition to performing an audit of state government, the office has the power to audit all counties and municipalities within the state. According to state statutes, the office also has the power “to perform audits of all accounts and financial records of any organization, institution or other entity receiving or requesting an appropriation or grant from State Government and to issue reports… .”
The power of the state auditor may not be limitless but it would seem significant.
Once again, according to those same statutes, “the State Auditor must be a certified public accountant or a college graduate with not less than 6 years of experience as a professional accountant or auditor.” Furthermore, the auditor must have “not less than 5 years of auditing experience” with at least four years in a supervisory capacity. By Mr. Dunlap’s own words in a recent radio interview, he does not possess those qualifications.
Mr. Dunlap said in the same radio interview that he will meet the qualifications in the timeframe that was set forth in the Maine law. There is a provision in the statute that allows for a nine-month window in which to gain certification as a public accountant. That would still leave the many years of auditing experience as a hurdle. Are we to believe Mr. Dunlap can condense six years of auditing experience and four years of supervisory level auditing into just nine months? If so, that is quite an achievement.
Now maybe I missed something and there is a comparable level of auditing experience in Mr. Dunlap’s background. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Dunlap, served as Maine’s secretary of state twice and oversaw a number of functions from driver’s licenses to elections while in that office. He was also the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine where he oversaw the organization while he was between gigs at the state. He also worked for a decade as a proofreader at the University of Maine Printing Services.
Mr. Dunlap’s other work experience was as a cook at the University of Maine. He has written that his job there included such things as “event planning, food ordering and work on innovative and creative presentations.” He also listed “overseeing all bar operations” and “unclogging toilets” as his relevant work experience. Now that I think about it, maybe he is qualified to work in and around the capitol in Augusta.
Unfortunately, nowhere in that lengthy curriculum vitae is there an example of Mr. Dunlap’s understanding of or experience in the world of accounting.
In a position that is fundamentally tasked with the review and explanation of vast expenditures of money at the state, local and business level our legislators have given the keys of the shop to a man who does not hold the requisite experience to do the job. Mr. Dunlap may be a nice fellow. When I met him years ago he was very polite and very funny, but the office of the state auditor demands a little more than that. I only wish that the members of the Legislature had given the same review to this applicant as they might have someone auditing their own place of business.
Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_crimmins@hotmail.com
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