Auditor Roles in Government Performance Measurement: A Guide to Exemplary Practices at the Local, State, and Provincial Levels

Learn how to improve measurement, management, and accountability of your entity. This research report includes:

An experience-derived framework of roles and practices you can implement to add value to the performance measurement and management of your organization.
The principles, criteria, and audit steps you should follow in these practices.
Details on major audit products, including citizen surveys and public performance reports.
Four case studies providing professional insight in the evolution of these practices and the profession.

Paul D. Epstein is principal of Epstein and Fass Associates, a New York City-based consulting firm. He has over 25 years’ experience in public performance measurement, quality and productivity improvement, customer service improvement, and sharing innovative practices. Mr. Epstein has assisted local, state, federal, United Nations, and nonprofit agencies that provide a wide range of services. In March 2003 he received the Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Measurement Practice Award from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) for his lifetime achievements. The work of an ASPA committee he chaired was cited by Congress in its report on the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act. That year he was tapped by Vice President Gore’s National Performance Review to help improve performance management of the federal government. Since the late 1990s, Mr. Epstein has been on the performance measurement research team of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Mr. Epstein has an engineering degree from MIT, and has taught graduate public management courses at NYU, the University of Hartford, and Baruch College.

Stuart S. Grifel, CIA, CGAP, is a corporate internal auditor for the City of Austin, Texas, where one of his key responsibilities is certifying the reliability of departments’ performance measures. Mr. Grifel has over 20 years’ experience in government performance measurement, operations review, performance auditing, and productivity improvement. He was previously an audit supervisor in the Austin Office of the City Auditor, where he represented the City Auditor’s Office on a Corporate Business Planning Team with city management representatives, and he provided training to department managers in how to interpret performance reports and use performance data for strategic planning, budgeting, and management decision making. He also conducted performance audits and assessed program performance measures and systems for tracking, reporting, and using measurement data in planning and decision-making. Mr. Grifel has assisted many jurisdictions in performance measurement and improvement while at KPMG Peat Marwick, the National Center for Public Productivity at Rutgers University, the Innovations Group, the City of Tampa, Florida, and Polk County, Florida. Mr. Grifel has an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston, and an MPA from Baruch College, City University of New York.

Stephen L. Morgan, CIA, CGFM, CGAP, CFE, is the city auditor of Austin, Texas, directing a full scope audit office that conducts performance audits, fraud investigations, and consulting engagements. Under Mr. Morgan’s leadership as deputy city auditor, the City Auditor’s Office conducted three citywide audits of performance measures, measurement systems, and the use of performance measures by department management. The first such audit followed a unanimous City Council resolution, drafted by Mr. Morgan, on performance measurement expectations of all departments. The later audits led to the city making a major commitment to improve performance measurement and integrate it with strategic planning and budgeting. Before joining the City Auditor’s Office, Mr. Morgan was an evaluator in the U.S. General Accounting Office’s National Productivity Group, responsible for managing audits of federal productivity programs. Mr. Morgan was appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States to the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards. In March 2002, Mr. Morgan became the fourth annual recipient of the Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Measurement Practice Award from the American Society of Public Administration honoring his lifetime of contributions to public service. Mr. Morgan holds a bachelor of arts degree in government (with honors) from the University of Texas at Austin; he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds an MPA from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas.