Sarbanes-Oxley for Government (a.k.a. Government Accountability)

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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Corporate Responsibility Act, requires for all companies filing a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that the principal executive and financial officers certify in each report: (1) The signing officer has reviewed the report; (2) The report does not contain any untrue statement of fact or omit to state a material fact; and (3) The financial information in the report, fairly present the financial condition and results of operations.

There have been several controversial government activities and
dubious government contracts recently for which no government official has been willing to accept responsibility and the amorphous nature of the federal government and its operations makes it difficult to determine who authorized the questionable activities.

We need a federal government where officials responsible for controversial operations and dubious contracts can be held accountable.

We need a federal government equivalent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring the authorizing federal official for all operations and all purchases involving an expenditure of $100,000 or more to sign an authorizing document stating: (1) The reason the expenditure is necessary; (2) The results of a cost/benefits study showing the benefits of the expenditure; (3) The source of the funds in the budget; and (4) The controls in place to assure the funds are properly spent.

And the perjury laws should apply to the federal officials’ statements

We can call it the Federal Government Reform and Government Responsibility Act.

What is good for private industry should be good for the federal government.