Accountable

I was thinking about a word that is often heard but it does seem to apply to some with limits.  Accountable.
So often I hear of the expectation of accountability.  I hold to it.  Yet I am continually left wondering “who checks the checkers.”  Unfortunately, at the moment it seems to be the checkers that are doing things they are not supposed to and not doing things they are supposed to.
In the news is the casino in WA.  It seems that in one room there has been a lot of cash transactions.  Like money in sports bags.  Thousands of dollars.  The rule is no cash transactions as money laundering is so rife and it is really hard to trace cash.  Yet management knew it was happening for at least a year and chose to do nothing about it.  It is one of the reasons Crown will not get a licence unless they clean up their act.
I went down that track because I was thinking about an organization I admire that had gotten themselves in hot water.  One of the leaders said today “changes need to be made.”  Well, yes.
But I asked myself “who are they accountable to.”  Everyone is accountable to God ultimately and people vote with their feet, but until a problem is revealed often an organization goes on doing what they are doing.
I thought of a circle and something being out by one degree.  One degree does not look like a lot, but a kilometre out the variation looks way bigger.  I reckon the bigger an organization gets the more the one-degree matters.  One degree suggests 359% is right.  But one degree is the undoing.
The way I see things 359 degrees is good as long as the one degree is dealt with.  A bad apple in the barrel only infects the others if it is allowed to stay in the barrel.  I may disagree with what they stand for, but I am glad Crown is being given the chance to get it right.  I need a chance.  Everyone needs a second chance.  Consequences need to be lived with, but one bad act does not define me.  That thinking is contrary to today’s cancel culture, but the ability to try again is what gives me hope.
To me it is why all need to be accountable.  Even the checkers.  At work I was into accounts.  Our philosophy was treat everyone like they are honest but investigate like everyone is dishonest.  More than once we were able to nip something in the bud.
While I could never claim to look forward to the Auditors visits having them find nothing to report was always a good thing.  One time I was totally upfront with them and said, “I have been dreading your visit.”  It was not that we had been deliberately slack or deceptive, but everything had happened so fast I knew it was flawed. I ended up later being asked to give a talk on working through issues.  After that, we never had another problem.
But they needed to check.  It was right they did.  I like too it was not the same person checking all the time.  I do have a problem with that.  One person can end up in cahoots with perpetrators of misdemeanours   That is why it is important to me checkers are rotated.
Without checks and balances people run amok.  What they do is right in their own eyes and in the worst case they are accountable to no-one.  In this life.  One degree can bring untold misery to many.