Transforming a Federal Agency

Chapter 4My First Hundred Days

The first hundred days are the most important. EY taught me this. I was used to evaluating large, complex companies quickly. And note, a coordinating partner cannot sign an audit opinion on a public company for more than five consecutive years. This five-year term is a PCAOB¹ regulation designed to monitor independence and help prevent cozy relationships between auditors and clients. Accordingly, every five years I had to get to know a new complex company. In the first hundred days on a new client, I spent considerable time learning the business, developing relationships with management and the audit committee, learning the governance structure, understanding the competence of its employees, learning the financial statement close process,² learning the accounting policies and processes, understanding the IT environment, and developing our global audit team. From this assessment I could gather a good understanding of a company's strengths and weaknesses in its governance, its people, its processes, and its IT environment. These four factors are the essence of every entity. This is exactly how I approached my first hundred days at HUD.

Before I accepted the appointment, I had known what Secretary Carson expected of me—my task was to remediate and improve the financial systems. His priorities included improving operations and protecting taxpayer funds from fraud, waste, and abuse. I knew the challenges. Now I had to take a deep dive in understanding ...