City internal auditor reports progress, flags staffing and scope limits

Crystal Carter, director of internal audit for the City of Charleston, told the audit committee Jan. 28 that her office has completed six planned audits during 2024 but remains understaffed after the department was dormant for about three years.

Carter said the internal audit office completed six planned audits, responded to three special requests and handled two hotline referrals. She described adopting Teammate audit software to help manage planning, fieldwork and reporting while she remains the only full-time auditor and said she has two open positions to fill.

The update came at a rare second meeting of the audit committee. Mr. Seekings, a committee member who introduced Carter, described her as “terrific” and introduced her as the city’s internal auditor.

Why it matters: internal audit provides independent reviews of operations, compliance and controls; the office’s capacity affects how much review can be done and how quickly concerns can be investigated.

Carter said the department’s dormancy created additional work to rebuild processes and meet professional standards. “I have been with the city for a little bit over a year,” she told the committee, and noted she must develop documentation, staff training and department charters that align with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (IIA standards).

She listed several items that reduced or changed planned work for 2024: an affordable-housing audit on the plan was canceled because the program received an annual federal audit and she obtained that final report to avoid duplicating effort; petty cash risk declined after a move to a cashless system; a full permit-process audit was postponed because permitting is distributed across multiple city offices and would require more time; and accounts-payable, procurement and payroll reviews were postponed because the city is implementing Workday.

Carter said recreation-related work remains pending because she has not issued the final report yet and that some recurring reconciliation-type audits (she named Majestic Square, RiverDogs and City Marina as examples) may be taken off future plans if they continue to appear low risk.

On staffing, Carter told the committee she has struggled to recruit qualified candidates who meet auditing and continuing professional education requirements. Responding to a question from Council member Waring about the type of candidates she needs, Carter said she is seeking people with accounting backgrounds and prior audit experience so they require less training in planning, fieldwork and report writing.

Carter said she routinely meets with city leadership to develop the audit plan and risk priorities, including regular check-ins with Mr. Seekings and biweekly meetings with Liz Deek, the chief of staff. She said once the two open positions are filled she will finalize the 2025 audit plan and timeline and submit it to Mr. Seekings for approval.

The audit committee asked whether attendees could refer candidates; Carter said she is optimistic about future hires.

The committee did not take any formal votes on audit items during the meeting. Carter said she expects to coordinate the internal audit’s annual report to better align with the external audit later this year and that the audit committee will next meet in August or September.