John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office must comply with subpoenas issued by the county's civilian oversight board as part of a whistleblower investigation into alleged misconduct, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
"The administration is putting more of a thumb on the scale of CIGIE," said Faith Williams, the director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program at the Project on Government Oversight nonprofit.
"Over 50 per cent of this year's growth was driven by municipalities, which includes local police and fire services whose work continues to protect Ontario communities."
Among the 189 CDO and other data leader respondents to the annual survey conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Data Foundation, about 40% said they had lost six or more employees last year.
Doing so has failed to prioritize agency internal control processes to adequately protect American taxpayer dollars, leading to documented examples of widespread abuse. Prior versions of OMB's guidance have overly deferred to the direction and priorities of external entities whose views are not binding on the Executive Branch, such as the Government Accountability Office.
In principle, all the departments are supportive of the Shared Services Strategy. However, HM Treasury and the Department for Education (DfE), who currently have modern ERPs and are both in the Matrix cluster, have indicated they would welcome more information through the business case about likely costs for them before they assess that onboarding is feasible and value for money.
Rather than stolen data making headlines, it was business stoppage that triggered attention. Moving into 2026, the board's focus should be on ensuring business continuity and building resilience in the face of emerging risks generated by AI usage and attack vectors, quantum computing and geopolitics.
The accounting watchdog said that, although there had been no new financial issues, it "disclaimed" the college's latest 2024-25 accounts because of the continuing "fallout" from financial reporting problems that resulted from a problematic IT project. "We were not able to provide a complete opinion on the opening position or in-year transactions for 2024-25, both of which are heavily derived from the closing position of the prior year," it added.
ADM announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to resolve its investigation into ADM's prior reporting of inter-segment sales, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, ADM agreed to pay a $40 million penalty. According to the SEC, ADM engaged in years of profit-shifting that made its star nutrition segment appear to meet ambitious growth targets, even as demand softened and margins declined.
Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.
Dear Transparency-Committed Reader, You're not alone. So many of us want decision-making to reflect our collective values (like transparency, care, and shared power), but it's hard to actually put those values into practice. That gap between what we believe and how we decide can be frustrating. And getting stuck in the process is a common concern I hear from groups. I am happy to share, though, that decision-making doesn't have to be a nightmare.
This will also greatly increase the need for AI audit trails: detailed records of what data AI used, what steps it took, what suggestions or decisions it influenced, and who ultimately confirmed the choices. These trails will become crucial for compliance, ethical accountability, and ensuring business integrity. According to Pugh, there will be a clear trend toward transparent AI workflows, and companies will increasingly see that an error in a prediction can be traced back to a specific step in the AI workflow.
"If we don't get what we need [in terms of extra government help] then a Section 114 Notice will come in, which is effective bankruptcy. We'd then get administrators come in, in effect - they'd then make a plan for where the money gets spent in Worcestershire. It would be a catastrophe. We're going to have to halt projects that were put into the budget by the previous administration, things that maybe were 'nice to have', but we can't afford them."
City law requires the council to approve all contracts above $250,000. But Oakland's city administrator, Jestin Johnson, has the power to issue contracts up to that amount without informing the council and the public. The mandatory annual report is meant to provide transparency into these purchases. The report also requires Johnson and his team to explain if any contracts were issued without a competitive bidding process, and how many awards went to local businesses.
Filing your Self-Assessment tax return each year is usually considered one of the less enjoyable tasks, particularly for those who are self-employed or need to report additional income. However, it is not only important to file on time to avoid penalties - it is equally essential to ensure accuracy. Many people do not realise that HMRC can issue fines for careless mistakes, alongside interest on unpaid tax, even if errors are accidental. Leaving your return to the last minute also slightly increases the risk of errors and delays.
As audit committees confront a rapidly expanding risk landscape, their role in corporate governance is being reshaped. Boards have often turned to current and former CFOs as independent directors, particularly for audit committees, because of their ability to translate complex operational and financial realities into effective oversight.For example, this month, J. Michael Hansen, former EVP and CFO of Cintas Corporation, was appointed to the audit committee at Paychex.
To all employees, this company takes data protection very seriously. It has a material impact on our operations. The CIO and IT Director are in charge of those policies. If one of them comes to your business unit and gives you an instruction, take it as seriously as you would instructions from any other C-level, including myself. As of this date, know this: If you disregard or otherwise violate any IT instruction, you better pray that they are wrong.
As the 2025 tax season approaches, Bill Bisson is stuck in tax limbo, still waiting for the Canada Revenue Agency to resolve a $3,471 penalty stemming from his 2023 return a charge he and his tax adviser say is an obvious CRA error. It's frustrating, it has created a lot of stress for me, said Bisson, who lives in Beaver Bank, N.S., just outside Halifax. It just keeps hanging over my head.
The Department of Defense, which was recently authorized to receive a new annual budget of nearly $840 billion a year and could see a substantial increase to $1.5 trillion under the current Trump administration, has consistently failed to pass an audit since audits became legally required for the military in 2018. Pentagon officials hope the military can get its books in order across the services and pass one by 2028.
US president says massive' fraud has caused budget imbalance, but calculations do not support this. United States President Donald Trump has claimed that unearthing and ending fraud nationwide would eliminate the country's deficit. In particular, Trump has highlighted alleged public services fraud by Somalis in Minnesota and also said there is fraud in many other places. If we stop this fraud, this massive fraud, we're going to have a balanced budget, Trump said on Tuesday during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
In this new season, I'm asking how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of U.S. politics, and talking to Americans whose lives have been changed as a result. Today's episode examines the destruction of the civil service: the removal of professionals, and their replacement with loyalists. I've seen this kind of transformation before, in other failing democracies. Everyone suffers from the degradation of public services.
