In my profession of internal audit which I practice at Spirit Mountain Casino as a senior auditor for Corporate Audit Services, there are standards that we must follow. They are outlined by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). The numbering system starts at 1000 with the first two entries establishing Purpose, Authority, and Responsibility and also recognition of a Code of Ethics and Standards. These are important yet mostly administrative. Section 1100 is Independence and Objectivity. I love that. What a great profession to belong to; that something should be so important as to be the first real items on the list. We are mandated to be Independent and Objective. The IIA offers interpretations of both which include the following:
· Independence is the freedom from conditions that threaten the ability of the internal audit activity to carry out internal audit responsibilities in an unbiased manner.
· Objectivity is an unbiased mental attitude that allows internal auditors to perform engagements in such a manner that they believe in their work product and that no quality compromises are made. Objectivity requires that internal auditors do not subordinate their judgement on audit matters to others.
I have not only the freedom to form my own opinion; I also don’t have to rely on someone else to tell me what I can or cannot say. What a great life! I have to tell you, I sleep soundly knowing that whether or not my recommendations are followed, a conversation with thoughtful discussion took place around risks and improvements, including risks to operational efficiency and effectiveness. Of course, all my opinions are really the team’s and we have to have supporting documentation that are reviewed as a team which follow many more standards and guidelines than these I mention. Still, I get to have conversations about the largest enterprise the Tribe currently has at the Board of Directors and Executive levels and it has been a privilege I don’t take lightly. It has been a great seven years.
So yes, an IIA standard is probably not as exciting to many people as it is to me. I realize my inner geek. However, let me tell you more, a story to understand why this is so great to me. When I was in Tillamook Junior High School, I made a trip with family to what is my all-time favorite happy place – Powell’s Bookstore. Powell’s would later become my source for scholarly information when I was at Portland State University (PSU). It had the latest information so I was able to stay ahead of the PSU library. I was then and am still today an information junkie. That city block in downtown Portland continues to be a stopping place for me. I love that all my children have the same reverence. (Sorry, I digress.) Anyway, in Junior High, I picked up a book titled Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein. It is a science fiction book about a young man who has returned from another planet where he grew up without any of our pre-conceived notions and prejudices, having been raised since birth by extraterrestrials. As a result, he easily identified with the practice of a Fair Witness.
A Fair Witness is a fictional profession invented for the novel. The individual is trained to observe events and report exactly what he or she sees and hears, making no extrapolations or assumptions. In Heinlein’s society, a Fair Witness is an absolutely reputable source of information. Standards must be followed and by custom, a Fair Witness acting professionally, generally wearing distinctive white robes, is never addressed directly, and is never acknowledged by anyone present.
A Fair Witness is prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. For example, a character in the book is asked to describe the color of a house seen in the distance. The character responds, “It’s white on this side”; it is explained that one would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house one should not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.
I always aspired to be able to step out of myself enough to be a Fair Witness. In fact, some good people in my life during college would mockingly call me that to remind me that I was “no Fair Witness” despite my aspirations for the title. I embrace that nick-name still and have incorporated the chinuk wawa version in my email for many years. Understand though, accounting is an act of a Fair Witness if done appropriately. Baseball bookkeeping (if we don’t consider the judgement around errors) and the resulting statistics are the act of a Fair Witness. History should have elements of a Fair Witness. These are all things I love.
There were, and still are no classes at PSU for Internal Audit. However, when I read the job description and qualifications for the Internal Audit position at the casino I knew it was something I would enjoy. I get time to read and study in order to prepare for audits. I get to have conversations with people about their jobs and if I have listened and observed well, hopefully leave them a little better than when I began the audit. I get to be a partial Fair Witness. I observe objectively, without bias, and am not interfered with my opinion. Technically, a Fair Witness doesn’t get to have opinions but really, how fun would that be? I love to both have opinions and to listen to other’s opinions. Opinions are only conversation and we need to respectfully acknowledge that we all have them and it doesn’t make any of us bad or unworthy of friendship when there is disagreement. Our tribe needs respectful conversation. Our challenges are many and competition is only going to increase as time goes by.
So, all of the above leads to this, dear reader. I promise that I will always operate independently, objectively, and to be a close approximation of a Fair Witness if I am given the privilege to serve the tribe through Tribal Council. It’s an easy promise to make. I don’t know any other way to be.
Michael A. Langley 