A month to go, half of city’s audits are done

With less than a month to go before their deadline, Baltimore officials have completed fewer than half of the agency-level audits that voters have ordered.

Auditors have finished 12 of the 26 voter-mandated audits of municipal departments that must be completed by the end of 2016. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake leaves office on Tuesday. The job will be Mayor-elect Catherine E. Pugh’s to finish.

Finance Director Henry Raymond and City Auditor Robert L. McCarty, who reports to Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, have pledged to make sure all the audits are

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completed by the legal deadline.

So far, performance and financial audits have been completed for the departments of finance, recreation and parks, transportation, housing and community development and planning. A financial audit of the Baltimore Development Corp. and performance audits of the Baltimore Police Department and Mayor’s Office of Information Technology also have been completed.

No audits have been released to date for the departments of public works, fire, general services, law or human resources.

None of the financial audits have found any fraud or abuse. But several audits have shown the need for improved recordkeeping and oversight of agency functions.

“All the audits are helpful in improving the efficiency of operations for all the departments,” Raymond said.

Baltimoreans voted in 2012 to require 13 key departments to undergo financial and performance audits by 2016. This year, the voters decided to increase that frequency, requiring performance audits of city agencies every two years.