One of the major “lessons learned” in the Recovery Act was that the capacity of state auditors and comptrollers to provide oversight was severely jeopardized by a lack of funds. As Earl Devaney, chair of the Recovery Board, told us: “The Act asked them to participate in the oversight activity and didn’t give them any money to do that. The money went to the federal Inspectors General, not the states.  That was unfair.”

Tom Allen

Annually, some $2.7 trillion of taxpayer money flows through the accounts of the U.S. federal government. Article 1 Section 9 of the U.S.