News flash: Citizens want their tax dollars handled prudently.

Not that the point was in dispute, but if evidence is needed to back it up, consider last fall’s election. Fifty-six percent of Washington voters authorized the state auditor to branch out and conduct performance audits.

Historically, the Auditor’s Office performed its accountability duties at a basic level – by making sure public agencies comply with state, federal and local laws and by investigating fraud allegations. In 2005, the Legislature expanded the role by authorizing limited performance audits, empowering the Auditor’s Office to examine the efficiency and effectiveness public agencies show in performing their responsibilities. Voters still weren’t satisfied, so last fall they OK’d Initiative 900, which allowed even broader authority, complete with a funding source.

While the auditor’s office has a keen eye, however, it lacks a strong arm. It has no enforcement authority to back up its findings once it reveals deficiencies.

When the office released a report on its annual audit of the state Employment Security Department a week ago, the results were unsettling, mostly because they touched on problems that have been noted four years in a row. Since 2001, the agency that distributes unemployment payments for jobless clients has been flagged for awarding benefits to people who aren’t eligible to receive them or for failing to make reductions required by law.

The Auditor’s Office credits the department with getting better, but how long does it take to address such fundamental flaws? To its credit, the agency conceded the problems identified in the latest audit, and it agreed with the Auditor’s Office’s recommendations for actions to fix the problem. We’ll find out next year if the Employment Security Department follows through as promised.

If it doesn’t, however, all the Auditor’s Office will be able to do is issue a new report. Employment Security isn’t the only public agency to earn demerits year after year for the same, unrepaired problems. Nor is it the worst. The Department of Social and Health Services is notorious. The state ferry system is about to be chastised for the 18th straight year over the way it handles fare receipts.

But what good is a smoke detector if there’s no fire department to douse the blaze? What good does an efficient watch dog agency do taxpayers if no one in authority is making agencies fix what’s wrong?

State Auditor Brian Sontag recently challenged Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature to start doing just that. He’s right. They’re the only ones with the muscle to make change happen.