THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507200173
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THUMBS UP
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
JOANNE WHESDOS WHITE, head of the city's internal audit division and president of the National Association of Local Government Auditors, is a woman who can blow a lot of the old myths about organizational bean counters right out of the water.
No eye-shade-wearing, pinch-faced, myopic, penny-pinching, pencil-pushing, adding machine-cranking fuddy-duddy is she.
Trim, attractive and witty, White works out of a slightly cluttered office (``Less cluttered than usual,'' she assures a visitor. ``I cleaned it up when I found out you were coming.'') hidden at the end of a lightly traveled back hall up under the eaves of the city's administration building.
Behind her is a sign that tells a lot about how she approaches her job.
``In God We Trust,'' it states, ``All Others We Audit.''
``We're really a pretty fun group of people,'' White said of her peers, ``not at all like what people think we are.''
Nevertheless, White's job is a serious one. She and her staff (three auditors and one support employee) are the primary watch dogs of the taxpayers' money.
They are the people responsible for seeing that city departments handle funds properly, that programs are achieving the purposes for which they were funded and that the operations of these programs are economical and effective.
Having internal auditors camping out in your office asking questions about how and why funds were spent or how citizens will benefit from any given expenditure can be a nerve-wracking experience.
White and her staff work hard to make it otherwise.
``We're really consultants,'' she said. ``Our job is to assist, to be on the front end in developing programs and procedures.'' A lot of the services that her division offers are of an advisory nature: things like helping with the design and implementation of new systems so that they'll better meet the department's needs and be compatible with others used in the city government.
``We're truly a people business and you need people skills to work in it,'' White added.
If that sounds like a new idea, it's because it is. ``I've discussed this with colleagues in teaching,'' the Old Dominion University graduate, CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner said. ``The (accounting schools) just don't teach that.''
They may not, but White teaches and preaches it at every opportunity.
Which is probably one reason why she was chosen last year as president-elect of the organization that represents 450 city and county governments throughout the country and is growing rapidly.
When she was asked to accept the nomination, the Virginia Beach native who grew up on the oceanfront and was a member of the first graduating class at First Colonial High School told the committee that she would do so with one stipulation.
``I told them I'd consider it if they would consider having their next annual conference in Virginia Beach,'' White said.
In the end, White agreed to the nomination and NALGA agreed to meet in Virginia Beach.
For White, the mid-May conference was a particularly exciting time. She got a chance to show off the city she loves and she made the move from president-elect to president. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Joanne White and her staff at the city's internal audit division -
three auditors and one support employee - are the primary watch dogs
of the taxpayers' money.
by CNB