Last city audit was 5 years ago

The city of Philadelphia hasn’t had a formal audit in five years, but the mayor said he was  handed a 2017 audit on Monday after The Neshoba Democrat pressed the issue at a budget hearing last week.

The latest audit available to the public shows the city of Philadelphia ended fiscal 2016 with a $264,963 surplus. At the time, it was the third surplus reported since the Mayor and Board of Aldermen doubled taxes in 2014 to help pay for new parks.

Tristan Rowell of Rea, Shaw, Giffin & Stuart, LLP, Certified Public Accountants told officials in September 2017 when the 2016 audit was delivered that “overall, the big picture is the city seems to be in good shape.”

The city of Philadelphia has not completed audits for Fiscal 2018, 2019 or 2020, the mayor confirmed.

The Mayor and Board of Aldermen was expected to consider hiring a new auditing firm during Tuesday night’s meeting to get caught up. The audits are required by law.

At the same meeting, aldermen were expected to approved the 2022 budget that includes a 1-milll tax increase to fund pay raises. (See story, Page 3A.)

The Fiscal 2020 audit is not due until Sept. 30.

Young said the problems started when the city changed firms due to a retirement. 

After the new firm was unable to get the 2017 audit on time, the city switched to another firm. Delays continued and the city got further behind.

The city was notified Monday that the firm it had been using as of late was not going to be able to complete the audit work due to personnel shortages, Young said.

“Here is where we are,” Young said. “We were notified they were not going to be able to finish. Monday was the first time where we had our stuff there, that they were not going to be able to complete it.

“We have already talked to a group that is capable by reputation and is going to help us get out of this backlog. We have got to get it done.”