Baltimore voters to be asked to OK more frequent agency audits
Charter amendment would require 16 departments to be reviewed every two years
Baltimore voters will be asked in November to approve more frequent audits of city agencies under a proposed charter amendment the City Council approved Monday.
City Councilman Eric T. Costello, the bill's chief sponsor, said evaluating the performance and spending of key departments every two years — instead of every four — will lead to a better-run city government. The legislation would also create an oversight commission.
“This is what will hold the administration accountable,” said Costello, a former information technology auditor in the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
“You have an objective third-party auditor who is taking a look at the efficiencies and effectiveness of the operations and making a determination.”
A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she supports the legislation. The mayor's backing is expected to ensure the charter amendment is placed on the November ballot.
Critics have raised concerns about how often Baltimore agencies are audited. Voters approved a measure in 2012 to require the city to complete audits of 13 key agencies every four years.
Only three of those agency audits have been completed. An audit of the city's overall budget is conducted each year, but more in-depth reviews of individual agencies have been performed much less frequently.
Costello said his charter amendment would demand more accountability than the previous legislation. His proposal would transfer responsibility for the audits from the director of finance to the city auditor.
The finance director reports to the mayor. The auditor is part of the independently elected comptroller's office.
Overseeing the audits would be a seven-member commission made up of the City Council president, three council members, the comptroller, finance director and inspector general. The group would be required to meet twice a year to hear the city auditor's reports and make recommendations.
The charter amendment would make three more agencies subject to the biennial audits: the Department of Health, the Mayor's Office of Employment Development and the Mayor's Office of Human Services.
Councilman Robert Curran said he supports the legislation, but had sought to remove the health department from the biennial audits. Curran said roughly 80 percent of the agency's funding is from grants that are already subject to rigorous auditing standards.
Costello declined to remove the health department, keeping auditing requirements in place for 16 agencies. Among the agencies that would be audited under the new standards are the police, fire, transportation and public works departments.
Robert H. Pearre Jr., the city's inspector general, endorsed the legislation. He said his office has found “severe internal control weaknesses across the city departments and agencies.”
“Payroll controls, revenue recording and asset management are just a few areas where the [inspector general's office] has observed that compliance is severely lacking,” Pearre wrote in a letter to the council last month.
Comptroller Joan M. Pratt said biennial audits would provide more timely information to improve the functioning of city agencies, and show the public how the agencies could improve if changes were implemented.
“Every four years is outdated,” Pratt said. “This is going to make a tremendous difference in how agencies will operate going forward.”
Costello said the city would not spend any more money on audits than it does now. The legislation requires the audits to be conducted by the city auditor, not outside consultants.
If approved by the voters, the new auditing schedule would begin in January.
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