setting i would say there were a few dilemmas along the way. several of them touched on during my conversation your. one of them when i was at tva i was the ig, new to the organization, trying to establish some working relationships. one of the things i would get is i would get a regular report on the travel plan of individuals within the organization, anybody traveling outside the united states. there was a corporate starr report put together. monday report floated across my desk and it was, it indicated our chairman of the board was going to be traveling to paris and the rationale was to attend the paris air show. so we were at that time, we were just a lightning rods for congressional criticism because the senate was in the hands of one part in our chairman was in a different party.

there was a lot of the stuff back and forth, and so i thought we are going to get criticized if it gets out. and so i debated him do i say something before it happens or do i just wait and hope that it doesn't get out? and i said i think it's important for me to be part of the conscience of this organization even as the ig. i picked up my foot on a cold and i just said, hey, i got the report and you are certainly free to do whatever you want but i think this is something that if this is the only purpose, it's going to be really criticized. i think we have to be willing to do that. i talk about audit ethics continuum. on the one extreme is those who are a couple says, and on the other extreme are those where the conscious of the our position. in the middle, and ours some are spectators and some are referees. a lot of us are just referees in the organization. we are there to throw a flag or blow the whistle after the play.

we have to become more proactive and willing to speak up and blow a whistle before the play it we see something is going to be a foul. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> the question is, what have i seen over the course of my career how i sing the profession get better, and what have i seen in terms of the profession getting worse. let me say this. i think this profession is one that has been on a trajectory, improvement for the last half century. and really throughout its history. but the thing that i think we're doing today that we were not doing when i first came into this profession in the mid 1970s is that we are really providing not just hindsight, looking behind, it's like driving down the road.

you're not going to be very effective if you only look in the rearview mirror. occasionally get to look around to see what's happening. we also have to be looking ahead. we have gone from hindsight back in the '70s and the '60s and '70s when it first came into the profession, we still provide some hindsight. we still look at what's happened last year, last week, last month, but increasing we are providing insight, looking and providing assessment of what's happening in the here and now. and i think our real ultimate destiny will be to provide foresight in addition to the hindsight. this is something david walker parked on, and i think he really articulate it well. we need to be able to provide hindsight, insight and foresight to be true value to our own interests. ladies and gentlemen, i thank you very much. i'm going to be a round. i would be delighted to have further conversations, and think it again, leon, for the

invitation. [applause] >> you are watching booktv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors ever weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. .. >> host: and on "communicators" this week, we want to introduce you to jeremy g