As an auditor much of my working life, I became very knowledgeable of the terms segregation of duties and controls. Together, and if functioning properly, they go a long way to assure the right thing gets done at the right time and in the right way. And, if functioning properly, they go a long way reducing fraud, waste and abuse.

Examples
Allowing the same person to place orders for tires and accept delivery of the tires gives rise to that person colluding with another to divert the tires to another location. Or, put another way, it opens the door for theft.

By requiring separate people (segregation of duties) to perform the order and receiving functions, the chances of theft are reduced. Then requiring the two individuals to sign documents certifying they ordered and received the tires acts as a procedural control.

Segregation of duties and controls do not guarantee honesty. Everyone who has worked for just one day has already witnessed and might have knowingly or unknowingly participated in workplace abuse. For one example, the grocery store employee who damages a product in order to purchase the product at a discount. For another example, the employee who receives a reimbursement for driving his or her automobile 50 miles instead of 45.

Sound controls, such as cameras, will usually catch theft by a grocery store employee. Well-designed controls are almost always effective for any conceivable situation in any industry.

The U. S. Government
Rank-and-file government employees work in similar controlled environments. But what about other than the rank-and-file? Other meaning those at the top - the people who make, execute and judge the propriety of overall policy decisions.

That’s the purpose of our Constitution defined separation of power: three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. Checks and balances come into play by limiting the power of each of the branches. That’s not new information for it is a concept we were taught in high school civics.

The fourth branch
The fourth branch of government can be almost any group influencing our government, including the people. I don’t consider influence alone sufficient to consider a group as a branch of government in the check-and-balance sense. Special interest groups, for example, have influence but they are not part of any check-and-balance system. Their attitude is one of give me what I demand. Checks and balances are far from the minds of special interest groups.

Print and broadcast media
The media is considered by some as the fourth branch because of its freedom to dig for facts pertaining to our government and report its findings. However, it doesn‘t always work that way. Granted, it has the freedom to do so but some print and broadcast media do not measure up for a few reasons.

• Favoritism We expect a newspaper or local television to report the facts surrounding unethical actions of its U. S. Representative for example. Some will but others either will not or they will downplay the significance of the issue. The media involved may get special treatment from the representative and are reluctant to bite the hand with the treats. It depends on whose ox is getting gored

• Pressure It is not uncommon for stories to be hushed because of pressure brought about by influential and powerful people. We know it happens but how much we don’t know.

• Revenue The amount of coverage devoted to a story will likely be determined by the impact of its estimated positive or negative advertising revenue.

Other factors are at work too but my point is don’t expect the media to give you all the news you should get. And don’t expect the media to give you full and accurate information.

The only legitimate fourth branch
We the people are, as we should be, the only group who can effectively keep our government in line. Only we as individuals can really feel good about what we know if we do our own leg work to the fullest extent possible. Technology has given us the means. Continue to watch and read television and newspapers but don’t stop there. Use the internet but use it with caution. The internet is a good source of accurate information, However, it does contain a lot of opinions. That’s OK when we don’t interpret opinions as fact.

If we allow ourselves, we can truly be the fourth branch. We have done just that over the past few weeks. Our diligence has forced greater attention to be given to the national healthcare issue. Our diligence has caused our president to rethink and rewrite his message to our school children. Our diligence has forced the resignation of Van Jones, the Green Jobs czar.

We can do a lot as the fourth branch of government to make our servants serve us and keep us informed.

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