You may be as quirky as I am, and enjoy knowing what the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) plans on auditing/inspecting this year and the next (Work Plans for 2018 and 2019 from the State Department’s OIG).  I have found that, through the years of reading audits and reports from the various US Government OIGs I have learnt a lot, especially how the US Government manages its contracts and personnel, as well as what are some of the contractors’ weaknesses and strengths.

For example, I have often marveled at how bad all parties to a contract can be with poor record keeping, despite knowing that, invariably, a government contract will be audited down the road.  It is amazing to me that we do not make an extra effort to ensure that records are easily accessible.  When working on rule of law programs in other countries, we stress the importance of accountability and transparency, with good record keeping being essential to fight corruption.