Baltimore's finance director told the city's spending panel Wednesday that agency audits voters required four years ago will be completed soon.
"All of the 13 principal agencies are under contract," finance director Henry Raymond told the Board of Estimates. "All audits are scheduled to be completed no later than December."
To date, five of 26 voter-mandated agency audits have been completed. On Wednesday, the city released financial and performance audits of the Department of Recreation and Parks. The financial audit gave the agency a clean bill of health.
"For all of the financial audits completed to date, there have been no issues of fraud or irregularities discovered," Raymond said.
The performance audit found five areas that need improvement, including park maintenance and tracking cash receipts. Auditors were not able to track receipts from fiscal year 2010 because documents had "been misplaced and cannot be located."
Auditors also found a former employee had been holding events at a recreation center on the weekends without approval. "The employee has since been terminated," the audit stated.
In 2012, Baltimoreans grew so frustrated by a lack of audits of city agencies, they voted to change the city charter to require 13 key departments to undergo financial and performance audits by 2016. So far, auditors have completed performance reviews of the Department of Transportation, Department of Finance and the Department of Recreation and Parks. Financial audits of Department of Finance and Recreation and Parks also have been completed.
The audits have cost the city more than $1 million so far.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday the City Council legislation mandating the audits — which was pushed over her and Comptroller Joan Pratt's objections — was "well-intentioned." The bill, sponsored by City Councilman Carl Stokes, allowed voters to decide whether to require audits of the agencies every four years.
"In none of the financial audits completed to date have any irregularities or fraud been found," Rawlings-Blake said. "All of the financial audits have been clean audit opinions."
Like Raymond, city auditor Robert L. McCarty, who reports to Pratt, said all audits undertaken by his staff will be completed by the deadline.
On Wednesday, McCarty released an audit of the city's Office of Risk Management that found more than 30 percent of city employees failed to show up for required drug and alcohol testing. The audit also found the city was overbilled by about $2,000 for drug and alcohol tests that should have been billed to the Baltimore public school system.
The audit of risk management was not required by the law mandating agency audits. McCarty's office typically performs between 10 and 20 audits per year.
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