August 13, 2012|By Joan Pratt
In 2008, the office completed audits of a Head Start program under the Department of Housing and Community Development and of hotel tax payments under the finance department. In 2009, it completed an audit of a federal grant for mentoring children of incarcerated parents and a low-income senior citizens discount program administered by the city's Water and Wastewater Bureau. In 2010, it completed another audit of a low-income water assistance program. And in 2012, it completed an audit of the city's water billing programs.
Audits have been requested and are now underway of parking tax payments, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Department of Finance.
The audit savings listed on the comptroller's website are actual audit savings, not expected recoveries. The total actual audit savings for my tenure as comptroller total $45,313,493. The actual audit savings, for the past five fiscal years total $9,607,891.
•Why were no peer reviews of the Department of Audits conducted between Jan. 1, 2006 and Dec. 31, 2008?
Consistent with standards for peer review, CPA firms of similar size as the Department of Audits were historically used to perform the peer review. Despite exhaustive efforts, the Department of Audits was unable to identify and retain a CPA firm of similar size during that period that was able to review the variety of financial and compliance audits that were performed. In consultation with the big four CPA audit firms, the department was able to receive approval to use the Association of Local Government Auditors. ALGA determined that the inability to retain a firm for that period did not put the Department of Audits in non-compliance, only "out-of-cycle." The peer review for the period Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2011 brought the department back "in-cycle."
Joan Pratt, a Democrat, is Baltimore's comptroller.
