City is not on list to be audited
Recently, the City was made aware of an article that the LA Times ran Monday which seemed to indicate that Monrovia was being audited by the State Auditor. The article contained a couple of errors that City Manager, Oliver Chi pointed out in his weekly e-mail update.
You may recall the report in late 2015, that the State Auditor had completed a review of Monrovia and determined that they would not be performing an audit of our organization. We shared those details in the Dec. 8, 2015 City Manager’s Update which can be accessed online at the City of Monrovia website.
As was mentioned, the more recent LA Times article is not entirely accurate with respect to the State Auditor’s involvement here in Monrovia, and to provide some additional background information, it is important to note the following factors:
-First and foremost… Monrovia is no longer on the list of cities being audited by the State Auditor.
-We were notified on July 1, 2015, by the State Auditor that they intended to perform a review of the City.
-That review was completed, and the assessment made by the State Auditor during their close-out letter stipulated the following:
-“As a result of our initial assessment, the state auditor concludes that the city of Monrovia is now taking steps to address the risk factors previously described, and as a result, we will not be seeking approval at this time from the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (audit committee) to perform an audit.”
-Based on that assessment, all that we are required to do at this point in time is send the State Auditor an overview of our continued efforts / progress every few months.
-We have sent the State Auditor additional information in February and April, and additional information will be shared with the State Auditor later this month.
-Each time we have sent the State Auditor follow-up information, they have been satisfied that we are continuing to address the issues that they initially identified as being high risk factors.
-When the State Auditor notified the City that we would be assessed in July 2015, at the same time, they also notified six other cities that they were going to be reviewed.
-Those six cities that were audited in July 2015 included:
-Chico, Richmond, Ridgecrest, Monrovia, Hemet, and Maywood
-The City’s understanding is that of the six cities contacted, Monrovia and Chico were the only ones who were not subjected to any additional audit.
-Maywood and Hemet were required to undergo a full audit by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
-Richmond and Ridgecrest were required to undergo some type of partial audit by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
-The LA Times has recently been running a series of articles on issues in the City of Maywood, which has experienced multiple controversies of late.
-As part of their reporting, we assume that the LA Times recently learned that Maywood was one of the six cities that the State Auditor assessed in July 2015, and they are reporting on this matter as though the developments occurred recently.
-The LA Times report has also failed to identify that the State Auditor has now audited dozens of communities from throughout California.
-In discussions with other city representatives, we are aware of several other communities in the San Gabriel Valley that are undergoing reviews / audits by the State Auditor’s Office that were not referenced in the LA Times article.
-The headline of the article (“The state is watching these six cities closely for financial fraud”) is obviously misleading!
-Also, please note that the LA Times article states:
“Most of the six cities were ranked poorly in some or all of the categories. But it was Maywood and Hemet that required audits after they failed to address issues raised by the state auditor.”
