City employees overseeing a program to help low-income residents pay for school, buy a home or start a business failed to provide the oversight necessary to prevent waste of city and federal dollars, according to a draft audit from the Office of the City Auditor. The program, called the Matched Savings Account, allows participants to […]
Office of the City Auditor
This city department is created by the city’s charter in order to establish and ensure “accountability transparency, and a culture of continuous improvement in city operations.”
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: City employees violated lottery rules
An assistant director of the city’s Human Resources Department helped to conduct a raffle last summer at an event sponsored by a large non-city organization. City employees participated in that raffle in violation of city HR policies, according to a brief special report released by the Office of the City Auditor on Thursday. Although city […]
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Ex-Austin Energy employee found not guilty of ethics violation
After a drawn-out series of hearings over the last seven months, the Ethics Review Commission on Jan. 10 found that retired Austin Energy supervisor Stefan Sasko made no violation of the city’s ethics regulations. However, the ruling may have implications for how the city code concerning conflict of interest is interpreted in the future. Nathan […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: City jobs programs disorganized
The city’s workforce development programs are neither well-planned nor well-coordinated, and the city does not have reliable data to evaluate the success of the programs, according to an audit released last week by the Office of the City Auditor. The audit, which was presented to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee by Assistant City […]
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Auditor voices concern about erosion of trust
On Friday, the Office of the City Auditor turned over the name of and allegations made by a whistleblower, as well as the identities of several witnesses, in the investigation of alleged violations of city regulations by Margo Frasier, the city’s former police monitor. The documents were turned over to the City Attorney’s Office in […]
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Audit: City lacks system to track fee waivers
Some city departments are doing a good job of tracking fees they waive, while others fail to track those fees or do so inconsistently, according to a report that Office of the City Auditor staff presented at the City Council Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday. As a result, auditors could only estimate that […]
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Commission subpoenas whistleblower notes
The city’s Ethics Review Commission has sent a subpoena to Nathan Wiebe, chief of investigations at the Office of the City Auditor, demanding previously protected information, including the name of and allegations made by a whistleblower against Margo Frasier, Austin’s former police monitor. It has also demanded witness interview memos and recordings. The auditor’s office […]
Posted inThe Code
City regulations may create more homelessness
City ordinances prohibiting panhandling in certain areas, criminalizing camping in public places, living in a car or tent, or sitting or lying on the sidewalk in parts of downtown are creating barriers that make it more difficult for people to overcome homelessness. That’s the conclusion of an audit from the Office of the City Auditor […]
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Auditor: 253 fraud allegations filed this year
It was a busy year for investigators at the Office of the City Auditor’s Integrity Unit. They sifted through 253 allegations of fraud, waste and abuse and completed 20 investigations during Fiscal Year 2016-17, which concluded on Sept. 30. Nathan Wiebe, chief of the investigative unit, laid out the scope and the numbers in a […]
Posted inCity Hall
Wagner accused of misusing city resources
The Office of the City Auditor’s investigative unit has issued a report concluding that a city employee who serves as an Austin Independent School District board trustee has misused city resources. According to the report, which was released Thursday, Trustee Yasmin Wagner works as a manager in the city’s Communications and Public Information Office. The […]
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Probe: Management employee misused resources
An investigation by the Office of the City Auditor has concluded that an executive secretary in the city manager’s office misused city resources in order to promote her other business: the sale of beauty products and jewelry. Mary Lou Rodriguez, who has worked for the city since 2006, currently works for Chief of Staff Ray […]
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Audit: Health inspectors found napping on job
Investigators from the Office of the City Auditor found that three restaurant inspectors were wasting city resources by exercising, shopping, napping and misstating the times they actually spent inspecting restaurants. According to the audit, in January, the auditor’s office received an allegation that several employees of the section of Austin Public Health that inspects restaurants […]