NEW: ANNUAL AUDIT WORK PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024-2025

On August 29, 2024, the Office of the City Auditor released its 2024-25 Annual Audit Work Plan.

Our Annual Audit Work Plans reflect the Office’s ongoing commitment and efforts to audit areas that matter most to Oaklanders while holding our government accountable for improving operations and delivering critical City services more effectively, efficiently, and equitably.

Highlights of Fiscal Year 2024-25 Audit Work Plan include:

1. Launching two priority audits: the City of Oakland’s Revenue Bureau and the Information Technology & Cybersecurity Department.
2. Launching two mandated audits: the Oakland Police Commission and Community Police Review Agency (Measure LL) and the Vacant Property Tax (Measure W).
3. Completing five audits: Illegal Dumping, Emergency Response Times, Kids First! Oakland Fund for Children and Youth Act (Measure D), Pay Equity in the City of Oakland, and Citywide Personnel Investigations (pending staffing resources).

Thank you, Oakland residents, Councilmembers, City leaders, community leaders, and City employees, for sharing your concerns and ideas with our Office through emails, interviews, and meetings. It is important to us that we incorporate your concerns and ideas into our work.

Read the Annual Work Plan here.

NEW: PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF GRANTS FROM THE CITY OF OAKLAND TO SABA GROCERS INITIATIVE AND ITS FISCAL SPONSOR

On July 1, 2024, our Office issued an audit report titled, Performance Audit of Grants from the City of Oakland to Saba Grocers Initiative and Its Fiscal Sponsor.

Saba Grocers Initiative (Saba) is a community organizing effort dedicated to creating equitable access to nutritious food for Oakland’s historically marginalized communities.

Between December 2021 and May 2023, the City Auditor’s Whistleblower Hotline received multiple anonymous complaints alleging that officials of a City of Oakland (City) contractor, Saba, did not distribute City-funded debit cards to community members, as the City contracted it to do. The investigation did not substantiate the allegations but found significant weaknesses in the City’s grant management and oversight of its agreements with Saba, necessitating a performance audit.

In October 2023, the Office of the City Auditor launched an audit to review payments from the City to Saba and its fiscal sponsor, InAdvance. The audit objectives were to assess 1) Saba’s compliance with grant terms, and 2) the City’s oversight of the grant funds. The audit makes six recommendations to the City Administrator’s Office to address these findings. When implemented, the recommendations will create a structure to improve consistency, transparency, fairness, and public accountability around the City’s processes for managing and overseeing grants.

Further report details are in the press release.