GUEST COLUMN.

A REMINISCENCE FROM R. KINNEY POYNTER

By R. Kinney Poynter, executive director of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers

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At the end of March 2025, R. Kinney Poynter, will be retiring as the Executive Director of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT) and passing the baton to NASACT’s next Executive Director, Josh Winfrey. Following is a special column that he wrote exclusively for readers of this website. Read on for insights garnered from the over 34 years he spent with NASACT.

After spending the vast majority of my 43-year career in government accountability and oversight—including over 34 of those years with NASACT—I thought it would be a good time to reflect on significant developments during my career and how much I have valued being a small part of such an important community.

It’s funny how life’s most important moments can happen when you least expect them—on days that might otherwise seem routine. For me, that day came in November 1988, when I responded to a classified ad in a Sunday edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader (yes, I know at least some of you reading this remember the significance of Sunday classified ads!). After working in Kentucky state government for a little over six years, including time with the Kentucky State Auditor’s Office, circumstances in my life suggested it was time for a change. My wife and I were expecting our first child, and while I loved my time at the Kentucky State Auditor’s Office, I knew it would be much better for my growing family if I worked in Lexington rather than commuting 30 minutes each way to Frankfort.

That typical Sunday morning, I happened to stumble across an ad for a Research Assistant – NASACT. After some quick research, I learned that NASACT was a national organization of state auditors, comptrollers, and treasurers—based right in Lexington, Kentucky. The position seemed like a great opportunity and exactly what I was looking for.

When I arrived for my interview in December 1988, I met Relmond Van Daniker, then the NASACT Executive Director. Van (as he was known to colleagues and friends) was also an accounting professor at the University of Kentucky. We spent about 30 minutes discussing the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and the newly revised Government Auditing Standards (the Yellow Book). The rest of the interview? Well, that was dedicated to a shared passion—University of Kentucky basketball! Later that afternoon, Van offered me the position. The rest, as they say, is history! I am forever grateful to Van for hiring me into what became an incredibly rewarding career.

Since 1989, the government accountability and oversight community has come a long way—to say the least. To give you some perspective, one of my first tasks at NASACT was to compile a response for the National State Auditors Association (NSAA) on what would eventually become GASB Statement No. 9 (today GASB has issued 104 Statements!). I was also handed a draft version of the NSAA Peer Review Manual and was told that external peer review would become increasingly important, as it was now required under the 1988 Yellow Book. I’m proud to say that today, the NSAA Peer Review Program is one of five recognized programs listed in the 2024 Yellow Book.

Over the years, NASACT has been instrumental in many major developments in our profession including (to just name a few):

Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 – in addition to creating CFO positions in 24 federal departments and agencies, this act also created a new Controller position at the Office of Management and Budget within the Office of Federal Financial Management.
Single Audit Amendments of 1996 – the first major update since the original single audit legislation in 1984, introducing a risk-based approach for selecting and auditing federal programs.
GASB Statement 34 – the landmark GASB statement that introduced for the first time a set of government-wide financial statements prepared on an accrual basis of accounting. Infrastructure was also reported because of this far-reaching statement.
GASB funding – a stable, sustainable and independent funding source for GASB was created in the Dodd Frank Act of 2010.
OMB Uniform Guidance – first released in 2013, the Uniform Guidance consolidated eight previous federal circulars. It was most recently revised in 2024.

While each of these events had a lasting impact on government accountability and oversight, I believe our community’s finest moments have occurred during times of national crisis. Specifically, I think we shined the brightest in implementing legislation following the Great Recession of 2008 (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act – CARES Act – and American Rescue Plan Act – ARPA).

During both crises, our community worked together at all levels—federal, state, and local—to ensure accountability and oversight of trillions of dollars in public funds. The public accounting profession also played a key role. Did fraud occur in the rush to distribute these funds? Unfortunately, yes. But I shudder to think how much more could have happened if not for the coordinated efforts of the accountability and oversight community.

As I conclude my time at NASACT, I am incredibly proud of the association’s accomplishments and its reputation as a trusted partner. I am proud of the work we have done alongside colleagues at the federal and local levels, as well as with the public accounting profession. By working together, we provide the greatest value to our country.

My hope is that NASACT will continue to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate—not just in times of crisis, but always. Its role in building trust in our democracy is simply too important to do otherwise.

To the members of NASACT and the Executive Committees (past and present), thank you for allowing me to serve as your Executive Director. It has truly been an honor, and I am humbled by the confidence you placed in me. To my co-workers at NASACT—you are the best, second to none! And to all my colleagues and friends around the country, keep up the incredible work you do every day. Never lose sight of how vital your role is to your respective governments and to our country overall.

Until our paths cross again—my very best to you all!

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