Audit committee approves annual audit plan, adds harassment review and parks hiring audit

The Metro Audit Committee on a voice vote approved the internal audit office’s annual audit plan, adding several audits and removing one after a prolonged discussion about priorities and hours.

The committee moved to add a Metro government harassment, discrimination and retaliation investigation practices audit and explicitly expand that scope to include Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). It also added a Metro Parks recruiting and hiring practices audit and a review of Metro Nashville Police Department (MMPD) confiscated funds and evidence room operations, and removed a previously proposed MMPD traffic-enforcement audit. The committee also clarified that a proposed historic audit should explicitly include the Historic Zoning Commission as well as the Historical Commission.

The annual plan covers the audit office’s year that runs roughly February through January and the office said it used a risk-prioritization process that considers revenues, expenditures, staffing levels and past audit dates. The office estimated total available staff hours for the year at about 11,500 and said the proposed plan as presented would consume about 9,000–10,000 hours, leaving some capacity for emergent work.

Office staff described how they gather potential audit topics, including submissions from the public, the Metropolitan Council and department heads, and how they compare proposed work against peer audit shops and recent high-risk findings in other jurisdictions. The plan will include follow-up work already underway and new audits such as criminal court clerk operations, credit-card spending reviews, Titan Stadium interim work, Nashville Fairgrounds cash collections and vendor contract fulfillment, a fleet program review, opioid settlement spending at the Health Department (about $5,600,000 noted in the meeting), transit operations and performance indicators, and a peer review by the Association of Local Government Auditors scheduled for mid‑May.

Committee members questioned estimated hours for large items. Staff told the committee the harassment/discrimination/retaliation review would likely require a multi-person team and estimated roughly 1,500–2,000 hours depending on scope; the office said it can scale team size as needed and is hiring additional staff. Members also discussed audit timing — for example, deferring a traffic‑enforcement audit so MMPD can first respond to a recent council resolution directing more enforcement, and scheduling the traffic review later in the year so auditors can capture “before” and “after” data if needed.

A council member urged the office to publish department-level audit histories so council members and the public can more easily see when a department was last audited; staff said they recently added an audit-by-department page to the audit office web site and will highlight that link in the annual report email to council.

The motion to approve the plan with committee amendments passed on a voice vote: “All in favor? Aye.” No recorded opposition was indicated.

The committee directed staff to proceed with the revised plan and to return to the committee with scheduling and hours estimates as the audits are scoped during the year.

Ending: The committee chair closed the discussion after confirming the plan passed. Staff said they will publish the annual report and notify council members about the new department-by-department audit view on the office web site.