Speech  Remarks of State Auditor Suzanne Bump at her Oath of Office Ceremony

Boston — Thank you, Senator Downing, for your introduction and for making this ceremony official.

Thank you, Governor Baker for your willingness to administer the Oath of Office. It is an honor to have you share the dignity of your position with us.

I appreciate, Mr. Speaker, that you are joining me, for the second time, as I assume the position of State Auditor. And, I would like to recognize all my colleagues in government who are here today, especially our emcee, my own State Representative, Smitty Pignatelli.

Father McGarry, welcome back to Boston and the Paulist Center. I appreciate your prayers for me and for all of us as we strive to discern and follow God’s will for the betterment of all.

Dr. Scott, thank you so much for sharing with us the transformative power of government auditing. And congratulations for your own accomplishments in bringing about a true renaissance at Valley Collaborative.

To the Dudamel Brass Ensemble from the Conservatory Lab Charter School, you are wonderfully talented musicians, and we all thank you for injecting such beauty into this program.

Lastly, to my family, especially husband Paul, it is wonderful to be able to share this moment with you. You all have been indispensable to my growth, my happiness and my political success.

Four years ago I took the oath of office at my alma mater, Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton. I chose that venue because of the formative role Spellman played in my development as a citizen who deeply cherishes our democratic (small D) ability to self-govern and is willing to assume her responsibility in that exercise.

Spellman helped me understand how I could act upon the admonition, attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, to be the change you wish to see in the world. Spellman motivated the commitment to public service which first brought me into this State House as an intern in 1978 and now has brought me to take the oath for this Office for the second time.   

I ran for this Office in 2010 because I saw in the Auditor’s office the opportunity to address a problem that truly threatens our democracy - the growing lack of public trust in government. I wanted to counter this cynical trend by demonstrating that elected officials can be trusted to be good stewards, and that government is capable of self-examination and self-correction.

Our late US Senator Paul Tsongas once said (and Governor Baker you might pay special attention to this),“if anyone thinks that government and efficiency belong in the same sentence, we have counseling available.”

Well, four years ago I was just zany enough to think that if policymakers and agency managers had better information, then they could make better decisions about how to spend the public’s money and how to deliver the services upon which we all depend.

So, I ran with a plan to be an advocate for efficiency and effectiveness in state government, and I am proud of what has been accomplished in the past four years.

The Office has identified hundreds of millions of dollars in misspending, management failures, accounting variances, broken systems and outright fraud.

We have helped to break up food stamp trafficking rings and put people in jail; we’ve helped shut down contractors who weren’t meeting their obligations and plug holes that were entry points for abuse and fraud in our public assistance programs. We have helped agencies across government to better manage their resources.

Additionally, we have worked with the Legislature to redesign programs and redefine goals in order to make government work better.

The law Dr. Scott referenced, to improve programs for collaborative students, is just one example. Our work has also led to changes in how government regulates occupational and trade schools, protects kids from neglect and violence, implements our anti-bullying laws, and saves resources for those who truly deserve them.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and all my legislative partners, for doing this work with me. I hope these reforms in the name of accountability and public trust have provided you with the same sense of pride that we in the Auditor’s Office feel. 

Yes, the Auditor’s office has done all of this, plus more. Last year we attained the National State Auditor Association’s highest possible rating in government auditing.

So, when I ran for re-election last year, I did so with all of my original goals in mind, plus one more….. to continue to lead the high-performing public servants who share my dedication to getting it right for the public.

The men and women of the State Auditor’s office - the auditors, fraud examiners, researchers and analysts, IT professionals, lawyers, administrators, executive staff, and all the rest –  conduct themselves every day with the highest degree of professionalism, collaboration and innovation.  Team OSA, I am proud to serve with you. I thank you for your service.

Attracting and developing a diverse cadre of top-rate talent and providing them with the resources they need has proven to be a winning strategy. In the next four years I intend to build on our success and continue this office’s evolution.

More sophisticated methods of risk assessment enables us to train our resources on agencies where misspending is most likely to occur. And, our leadership in the use of data analytics to identify questionable patterns of spending and service delivery means that auditors from other states and the federal government are now looking to us for best practices in handling big data. So, I am determined to keep us in the ranks of the highest-performing government accountability organizations. That is my first priority.

In order to accomplish some of my other goals, however, I need the help of others in government. For example, the office has identified $2 billion worth of business tax incentives, credits, exemptions, and deductions for which there is no direct oversight or means of determining whether these significant tax incentives to businesses are also producing benefits, like jobs, to the public. To do so, auditors need access to more records of the Department of Revenue, and I intend to seek this access.

Similarly, to better probe potential public assistance fraud, our investigators need access to bank and other financial records of applicants and recipients.  

I look forward to making my case to the Legislature for this enhanced ability to protect the taxpayers.

It is the unique role of the State Auditor to focus all her time and attention on making government work better, so I am always looking for ways to sharpen systems, improve performance and increase efficiency and for partners in government who share these goals. It is my hope, not just for 2015 but for the next four years, that the administration of Governor Baker will recognize the potential for improved efficiency in government through co-operation with our auditors and investigators.  We look forward to working with you, Governor.

Sometimes our work generates headlines that none of us want to see. I am a strong advocate not just for government’s ability, but its responsibility, to help advance individual, societal and economic progress. I take no joy in finding fault with our policies and spending.

But, I believe that government becomes stronger, not weaker, when its leaders are willing to confront its inefficiencies and mistakes and then act to protect taxpayers and improve public services.