The Imperial Audit Office
The Imperial Audit Office is a central government department, under the Imperium, and answerable to the Council of Senators and the First Citizen.

Mission Statement

To ensure that the governance of the Earth Empire is just, legal and properly administered.

To support failing colonial administrations with appropriate advice and direct intervention if required

To act as the external auditor of management, governance and financial systems in colonial quadrants

How the Mission is achieved

The IAO has the power to intervene in the government of a colonial world or, in extreme cases, in an entire quadrant should any of the following circumstances apply.

• Clear evidence of mismanagement by the imperial representatives.  Evidence for this might include, local civil disorder, terrorism, low trade figures, high levels of piracy or other economic crimes, poor quality reporting (i.e. the official reports differ substantially from information received from 'other sources')
• Clear evidence of intention to rebel, or otherwise subvert the authority of the Empire.
• Clear evidence of impropriety on the part of Governors or other similar senior executives of the Empire.

Intervention

It can intervene on a number of levels, depending on the nature of the intervention.

On a low level of mere administrative incompetence, admin teams from the IAO will come in and troubleshoot the local systems and bring them up to speed, retraining the locals, and leaving better systems in place.

In the event of civil unrest or the like, the IAO have their own specialist police forces and mobile training cadres.  In the initial phase these will support the local police/security forces in bringing the situation under operational control, as well as training and equipping the locals to handle the situation themselves.  BUT.  At the same time, IAO investigation teams will do a Full Audit of the regional government to find out what has caused the unrest in the first place.  A Full Audit has Imperial Powers of Arrest and Detention, and can remove a system Governor, if absolutely necessary.  It is backed up by specialist Marine-class troops to enforce this authority.

In the event of more serious treachery or rebellion, the IAO may extend its powers to be able to:

• Commandeer any or all Imperial Military Forces in the quadrant concerned.
• Bring into play elements of the IAO Enforcement Fleet (not under Naval Control).
• and still fully exercise the powers of a Full Audit (i.e. to arrest/depose the rebellious officials)

Resources of the IAO

The exact levels of IAO resources are not widely published in government circles - this is deliberate to discourage regional Governors from feeling they can calculate the odds of beating the Enforcement Fleet.  Rumours abound (mostly spread by the IAO) of a huge unstoppable war fleet of interstellar battleships.  This may be an exaggeration, though there are interstellar warships available to the IAO.  What is known is that the IAO commands several divisions of ground forces, at least 10 regiments of marines, many regiments of riot control troops, and well over 50,000 Intervention Police.  Not to mention the mobile training cadres, the humourless Special Audit Division, the  especially able Audit Department for External Political Training and the Audit Office Regional Training Authority (the life blood of the retraining mission).  Never in the field of human audit, have accountants and auditors been so well armed.

So, regional governors and senior colonial executives, be warned...

"No-one Expects the Imperial Audit Office!"