The D.C. police department has never been subject to an independent audit. Now its executives are scrambling to account for missing money from fines that was supposed to help victims of serious crimes in the District.
The District’s finances are reviewed annually in the legally mandated Comprehensive Annual Financial Review. That’s the same audit that missed the $48 million property tax scam organized by Harriette Walters, a multimillion-dollar bid-rigging scandal in the technology office, and millions in fraud and waste in the city’s public schools.
Some are wondering whether there ought to be forensic audits for individual agencies. Forensic audits are focused on rooting out corruption and waste.
“We might think of it as an investment,” said Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3. “I know these things are expensive, but given the history we’ve had of fraud and mismanagement, I think it would be a good idea.”
The city’s track record for such audits, however, is not encouraging. Mayor Adrian Fenty took credit for ordering the first-ever forensic audit of the $1.3 billion school system, but the results of it have never been released to the public.
Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large, chairs the committee that oversees the D.C. police department. He stopped short of calling for a forensic audit but said he hoped that the department could account for every dollar.
“If the money’s not being audited, that’s an invitation for someone to misuse the money or to self-appropriate the money improperly,” he said.
