Re: why public accounting is important

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On Tuesday 08 April 2003 08:34, dep wrote:
> okay. fair enough: only those "nonprofit" organizations with nothing
> to hide are likely to want to make their finances open for all to
> see.

agreed; and yet they may still choose not to do so. as i mentioned in my 
original email opening those books to the public may result in unfair 
scrutiny that is simply better to be avoided.

if an organization had enemies who had a bone to pick with individuals within 
that organization, the chances are high that they would take the release of 
the books as an opportunity to spin the documentation into a horror show of 
negativity that would do ireperable harm to future positive directions. so, 
having enemies in the public is one reason not to do so.

another reason is that you may have donors who do not want to be known. or 
they may be known, but they would prefer that the details of the spending was 
kept private as they are content, happy and satisfied with the spending of 
the money as it occurred though they know others with other agendas who 
didn't put any money or effort into it may feel otherwise.

another reason may be that it is felt that there is no publicly useful 
information in the financial statements of the organization, and that they 
would rather try and emphasize specific efforts and works rather than the 
maze of day-to-day details.

> and only those organizations which are ashamed at their failure
> to do much of anything refuse to explain what, specifically, they
> have done to further their stated cause.

while i agree that those who have nothing to be proud of will likely not open 
their books, there are also reasons for those who are ethical and clean to 
not open their books up publicly.

what is more important to me than seeing the private financial matters of an 
organization that i have not put one red penny into myself is:

 o are those who have put money into it happy?
 o are there visible positive efforts being made with the contributions?
 o is there a healthy marketing program to promote those positive efforts?

if the answers to the above is "no", then yes the financial records should be 
looked into. but that doesn't mean that the public needs to be brought into 
it, with the potential of creating an even greater bruhaha over what may be 
nothing. a review by vested interests (e.g. those funding and/or represented 
by the organization) should be made and if there is something found amiss, it 
should be corrected and a public statement made.

assuming, of course, that this is all within the requirements of the law.

are there any particular organizations you have a vested interest in that you 
would like to see the books for Dennis? could i suggest the NSA?

> i understand that you do not agree with this. 

i agree with much of what you said, however i hold those fragments of truth to 
be part of a larger and therefore, IMHO, more accurate picture of reality.

> and i hope that you hold
> all organizations to that standard, and therefore do not especially
> object to secrecy as a general policy, rather than merely
> establishing that standard for just one organization, while holding
> other entities to some different standard.

i respect "secrecy" when it is "privacy" and when my interests, in as much as 
they are vested, are protected, respected and taken care of.

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

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