FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
SAN DIEGO – Today, the City of San Diego’s Audit Committee discussed the City Auditor’s Recommendation Follow-Up Report which provides the status of open recommendations as of December 31, 2020. The intent of this report is to keep the Audit Committee informed about the implementation status of City Auditor recommendations and this update is provided twice per year.
During this reporting period, the Administration has implemented 29 of the outstanding recommendations. The Auditor has issued 7 reports and added 58 new recommendations, and the Administration agreed or partially agreed to implement the new recommendations. The Auditor asked all departments with outstanding recommendations to provide a current target implementation date; however, there are 202 recommendations in this report with dates that are past due.
“We have a significant backlog of recommendations that need to be implemented,” said Audit Chair Moreno. “However, I do not want to ignore some of the positive movement that has been made including the Pay Equity Study, an important study which was completed and discussed at City Council last month.”
Among the recommendations not implemented are the Performance Audit of the Business Cooperation Program. This program was created to take advantage of tax regulations by the California State Board of Equalization which allow the City to collect additional sales and use taxes on goods sold or purchased by businesses in the City. “The Business Cooperation Program is a valuable tool that we should promote and utilize to the greatest extent possible, said Audit Chair Moreno. “It was created to take advantage of state guidelines that allow cities to capture additional tax revenues from large projects. And we as a city have been leaving those tax revenues on the table.”
The City Auditor’s Office will continue reporting on open recommendations semiannually for periods ending around June 30th and December 31st. More information can be found here.
