Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Audits Audit Office topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Richmond city auditor reports 72 recommendations, $10.8 million in financial exceptions in FY25
Summary
City Auditor Riyadh Ali told the Government Operations Committee his office issued 11 reports in FY25, made 72 recommendations (49 high priority), identified about $10.8 million in financial exceptions and referred roughly $6 million to the Office of the Inspector General.
Richmond City Auditor Riyadh Ali presented the Office of the City Auditor’s annual update to the Government Operations Committee on Oct. 1, summarizing fiscal‑year 2025 work, audit types and follow‑up activity.
Ali said his office issued 11 reports in FY25 — six audits, four recommendation follow‑up reports and one special project — and made 72 recommendations to city management. He told the committee 68 recommendations were agreed to and four were partially agreed; 49 of the recommendations were classified as high priority. The auditor said staff verified implementation of 59 recommendations and the city reported recovering $228,000 in FY25 from prior audits.
Ali described the office’s role under city code, including development of an annual audit plan approved by the audit committee, and said audits follow Government Auditing Standards (the “Yellow Book”) and include fraud‑risk assessments and procedures. He said fiscal‑year reports identified financial exceptions totaling roughly $10.8 million, of which about $6 million was referred to the Office of the Inspector General for further investigation. The auditor said the city closed a number of recommendations tied to warehouse operations, waste and streetlight contract issues; the city ended a vendor contract tied to the streetlight audit.
On staffing, Ali said the OCA has a professional audit team with certifications (CPAs, CIAs, CFE, CISA) and that the office had vacancies: two senior auditor positions and a manager position that he said were in active recruitment. He reported his office passed a peer review by the Association of Local Government Auditors with no findings.
In response to committee questions, Ali acknowledged it is difficult to directly convert audit recommendations into an annualized budget savings figure and said the office will keep trying to include annualized estimates where feasible. He also said the office is working with administration on tools and a dashboard to improve monitoring and live reporting of open recommendations.
Ending: Committee members praised the audit office’s work and asked the auditor to continue improving tracking and to include more detail where possible on the budgetary impact of audit recoveries and recommendation implementation.
