The City Auditor’s Office is required to perform certain financial audits every year to ensure that the City’s “books” are accurate. These are the most familiar types of audits. However, many of the audits performed by the Office are operational, or performance audits.

Performance audits help discover many ways for departments to improve efficiencies. They can determine:

• If processes are working efficiently;
• Whether policies and procedures are effective;
• If any internal controls need to be strengthened, changed, added or implemented;
• If programs are delivering the results promised to the taxpayers.

The results of an audit are published in a report that details the audit's findings, recommendations and required actions.

Recent audits include:

• Alamitos Bay Marina Rehabilitation Project Viability
• Harbor Department Transfer Analysis
• Queen Mary Capital Improvements Audit Phase III
• Towing Operations Division Cash Handling Procedures Follow-Up Audit

The City Auditor reviews all disbursements of City funds. This means that the Office of the City Auditor reviews and signs all checks issued by the City, including vendor payments, workers' compensation claims and employee payroll checks.

To protect City funds, if there is an issue with a requested disbursement, the payment is withheld until the issue is resolved. In FY11 (October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011) the Office of the City Auditor withheld total of $11,450,210 in checks.

To provide perspective to the scope of this work, in FY11 the Office handled:
Number of checks reviewed: 47,408
Value of checks reviewed: $608,207,594
Number of checks withheld: 998
Value of checks withheld: $11,450,210
Number of wire transfers authorized: 1,048
Value of wire transfers authorized: $2,500,585,738

Wage Garnishments

The Office of the City Auditor administers all City employee wage garnishments. During 2011 the Office managed over 300 active garnishment files for City employees. Garnishment payments total approximately $75,000 each payroll period. Additionally the Office maintains files for 1,200 inactive cases.

Fraud Hotline

The City Auditor's Fraud Hotline provides a system to report fraud against the City easily and confidentially. Currently the 24-hour, 7 day-a-week Hotline is receiving approximately 60 calls annually that pertain to allegations of fraud, waste, or abuse against the City.

Learn more about the Fraud Hotline