Former Republican state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, whose district covered Klamath County and areas thereabouts, was by no means our favorite Oregon legislator for various reasons. We are grateful for him, nonetheless. He made us think.

One idea that he hammered furiously away at is that, perhaps, Oregon has enough laws.

“Stop and think for a minute,” he once wrote. “People want more freedom, smaller government, lower taxes and yet every year the legislature meets and passes hundreds of new laws. Why do we need all of these laws?”

You didn’t have to be in lockstep with his views to see he had a point. Maybe what the state of Oregon should do more of is examine what it already does, ensure it is meeting goals — and meeting the right goals.

Oregon does that to some extent. The audits division of the Oregon Secretary of State does external audits of state agencies and programs to ensure they are achieving goals and are using money wisely. Legislators and the governor ask questions. Many state employees strive for excellence. Bureaucrat should not be assumed to be a bad word.

But there is one place where state government has repeatedly fallen short over the years. Big Oregon agencies are required by state law to take a hard look at themselves with internal audits. It’s when a member or members of the agency formally dives in and examines something the agency does.

Here’s an example: Remember those problems that the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission had with senior employees diverting rare liquor? OLCC set up a new policy. An internal audit then reviewed how the new policy worked and made several suggestions for improvement.

There are many more examples. But some agencies don’t fulfill all the requirements of the law. For instance, agencies are “required to complete audits focused on governance and risk management topics at least once every five years. Among the agencies that have established audit programs for at least five years, only one agency has not conducted an audit of this type, the Oregon State Police.” That’s from the latest “Annual Report on Statewide Internal Audit Activities.”

That annual report is never going to go viral. It should be more easily accessible, at least. Why doesn’t Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services put the report up on its internal audit website? Why doesn’t it put up links to all the internal audits that aren’t sensitive on that same website?

We made a public records request to get this year’s report. DAS fulfilled the request in hours and Andrea Chiapella, the communications director for DAS, also got it to us.

We sure wish legislators would give it as much attention as they do the new laws they are readying for passage.