Is the Internal Audit Dept. Needed?

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The Internal Auditor is the best friend tax payers can possibly have.

They have the responsibility of auditing City Departments and find ways to improve the way business is done, find way’s to save the City money, and run more efficiently, while offering recommendations for improvement.

Internal City Auditors have the following responsibilities:
Evaluate financial documents, identify the financial risk and offer recommendations to reduce the risk, Identify accounting and financial record-keeping processes that can be improved, determine ways to cut costs, assess the efficiency and productivity of internal staff and make recommendations for improvement, and present findings to upper management in the form of reports and presentations.

You cannot fix a problem you don’t know you have, and the City of WPB has problems from the top down.

A little history:

Along with the Chief Internal Auditor there are five members of an audit committee who work with the IA. One member is appointed by the Mayor, and three are considered “Member -At- Large” who volunteer their time in an effort to assist the City. Presently the City is missing one “Member -At- Large” due to relocating to another city. The City Charter requires the audit committee members to reside with-in city limits, as the Charter also calls for the City Administrator to also reside within city limits, and she does not. The President of the City Commission (Peduzzi) acts as the Chairperson.

Chief Internal Auditors:

The first WPB Internal Auditor for the City was Imogene Isaacs, who devoted 22 years of her life to the City of WPB before being forced out by then Commissioner Keith James, when he accused her of leaking a story to the Palm Beach Post, concerning Bishop Ray of Redemptive Life, who as an attorney James previously represented Ray and the church.

WPB Watch posted a story in 2013 and can be read below, and I ask readers to read the memo James sent to Ms. Isaacs, which caused her resignation. Ms. Isaacs biggest complaint was her budget was cut severely enough that she didn’t have the money needed to hire enough staff to do a decent audit. After her resignation the entire audit staff resigned in protest.

https://wpbwatch.com/2013/10/redemptive-life-fiasco-caused-retaliation-on-wpb-auditor/

The second Internal Auditor was Roger Strout, hired by the City Commissioners in 2013. Mr. Strout gave excellent reports, easily understood, and also mentioned problems he had with some departments releasing documentation in a timely manner so he could audit a particular dept. He was very professional in his remarks, but you could hear the frustration in his voice. Just my common sense working here, but if there is a problem releasing documentation, my first thought is what are they trying to hide?

Mr. Strout had his “right hand man” who turned out to be a woman named Beverly Mahaso Esq. (identifies her as an attorney) CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) and when he retired from the City he stood at the podium and recommended her as his replacement. The City listened to him and offered her the position. She accepted, which brings us to the City’s third Chief Internal Auditor.

There are 21 Departments in the City of WPB, and at one time or another they all will be audited. The IA just finished an audit on “Police Special Investigations” one area of the Police Dept; there are many more.

Audit Committee Meeting, Tuesday November 9, 2021.

Very upsetting meeting where I learned the Internal Auditor’s Office. is down to one Senior Internal Auditor. Last month they had 2, but one resigned due to personal reasons.
The Internal Auditors Office has been given only 3 staff auditors to do audits of the entire City and its been like that for years. So how many are needed to properly run the dept.? Certainly more than 3 especially with all the money the City is receiving.

Ms. Mahaso said she was concerned she would lose her last Senior Internal Auditor, and that should concern every City Commissioner and taxpayer of WPB. She said that she has been trying to promote the one person but it sounded like she must have hit some resistance. It was clear that this was an urgent matter. Some even called it an emergency.

The other interesting statement was Commissioner Peduzzi reported the IA Dept. reports to the Committee Members mentioned above because the charter calls them a management committee. According to the charter this is to ensure the independence of the audit function. But the City Commissioners appoint the Internal Auditor also in the charter. So between the audit committee and the commissioners, the Chief Internal Auditor should be able to go to them and get the support she needs to get the work done.

City Charter: Sec. 4.05. – Internal auditor.

“The city commission shall appoint a city officer with the title of internal auditor. The internal auditor shall conduct, or cause to be conducted, financial, compliance, and expanded scope audits following generally accepted government auditing standards. The internal auditor shall have access to all records and personnel.
The internal auditor shall be appointed by the city commission. Removal from office must be for cause by a majority vote of the entire membership of the city commission (three affirmative votes).
To ensure independence of the audit function and to coordinate internal audit work with the needs of the mayor and the city commission, an audit committee is hereby established. The audit committee is a management committee and not a public board, commission or committee as specified in Article III, Section 3.01(5) above. The audit committee shall be comprised of five (5) voting members; the mayor or designee, the president of the city commission and three (3) at-large members who shall be appointed by the city commission.

The at-large members shall be city residents with expertise in auditing preferably internal or management auditing and at least two (2) of whom shall be a certified public accountant or a certified internal auditor; appointments shall be staggered for terms of three (3) years. The president of the commission shall be appointed as chairperson of the audit committee. The audit committee shall perform an evaluation of the internal auditor annually and present such to the city commission.”

City of WPB Org Chart Effective 05.24.21-1

Readers look what I found on the agenda for the upcoming CC meeting
Resolution No. 299-21 amends the City’s Salary Plan as provided in Resolution No. 248-21, approved on September 20, 2021 for fiscal year 2021/22 by creating the job classification of Grants and Special Projects Administrator with the pay grade allocation of GM04 and providing a salary range of $84,249 – $130,164. This job classification is created to facilitate complex grant planning, budgeting, monitoring, reporting, procurement compliance and task management.

Previous new hire

“Mayor James Announces New WPB Assistant to the City Administrator Dr. Philip C. Harris
The City’s pay scale salary for level GM17. “Min. $121,330.00 Mid. $151,663.00 Max. $181,995.00” “Mayor’s Office Harris, Philip Christopher 101117. Assistant to the City Administrator. Admin, Clerical&Fiscal GM17 $152,000.” (Mid. Level)” Very generous Mayor and City Administrator with taxpayers dollars.

So Administration can create new positions for friends and family, but can’t take care of the employees they have. The employees they need. So where does that leave the Internal Auditor’s Office when they need positions and funds to pay staff? Who benefits from not having audits done?

The end