RELEASE: Poliquin: Budget Cuts Highlight Need for Audit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 22, 2010
CONTACT: BRIAN PHILLIPS
207-272-0363
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Brunswick – Today, Bruce Poliquin, candidate for Governor, said the current budget crisis highlights the importance of conducting a government-wide audit of every program, department, and agency.  Poliquin, a business manager with extensive experience in finance, said the budget cuts being cherry-picked by the legislature show the need for each program to have measurable objectives and metrics to better evaluate performance.

“The nature of the proposed cuts suggests there is no rhyme or reason to why one program is cut over another,” said Poliquin. “Savings for the sake of savings is fiscal mismanagement.  You run the risk of punishing programs that work and maintaining those that don’t.”

“A good manager will first institute measurable objectives that can be used to evaluate performance on a continual basis,” Poliquin explained. “Then you will have the information you need to address waste and inefficiencies, and properly adjust spending levels to balance the budget.  The current process just maintains the status quo and ignores the root causes of our state government’s poor fiscal management.”

-30-