The Biennial Audits Oversight Commission voted to adopt the proposed 2026 Group B audit program on a unanimous roll call after a presentation by City Auditor Josh Pash and questions from commissioners.

"My name is Josh Pash, and I am here to present the 2026 proposed audit plan for group e audits," Auditor Pash told the commission as he outlined proposed objectives for audits of the Baltimore City Health Department, Rec and Parks, the Police Department, the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Law and others. He said the Health Department review will focus on alignment of physician contracts with departmental objectives, and the Department of Law review will assess the collection process for unpaid bills.

Commissioners pressed for detail on the collections audit scope. Council member Ryan Dorsey asked whether the audit would review all unpaid bills or only those the Law Department puts into collections, citing examples such as unpaid automated traffic enforcement tickets. Pash said the audit will focus on bills formally placed into collections and that he would refine and report back on the exact scope after pre-planning. "I will have to get back to you on that," Pash said when asked for further examples.

Dorsey also raised a line of questioning on Department of Transportation oversight of street cuts and restoration, saying DOT told the council it inspects "100% of those street cuts that are made so long as they are reported to us," and arguing "it would seem then ... there is an abundance of report failure to report." The inspector general offered to provide Pash's office with the office's prior investigation into street cuts and related practices to help the audit team.

On permitting and planning, Pash said a prior audit found flaws in the city’s permit-tracking system and a lack of secondary review; the follow-up will assess whether Planning, acting as the hub, effectively tracks submissions, assignments to agencies and returns so the city can identify where permits stall. For the Health Department, Pash said preliminary discussions with the new commissioner suggested consolidating physician contracts or standardizing terms could improve service delivery; the audit will examine contract provisions such as credentialing and on-call requirements.

The commission adopted the audit plan by roll call. The chair called the motion and the program was "approved and properly adopted," closing the meeting with thanks to Auditor Pash and his staff.

Votes at a glance

- Adoption of minutes from prior meeting (09/10/2025): approved (motion, second; roll-call approval recorded).

- Adoption of 2026 Group B audit program: approved by roll call (members recorded as voting yes included Council member McCray, Inspector General Isabella Mercedes Cummings, Council member Ryan Dorsey, Council President Cohen, Miss McClammie and Mr. Moxon).

What happens next

Pash said audit teams will perform pre-planning to refine audit scopes — including which unpaid bills will be examined and whether the Planning follow-up should be delayed if management action plans have already been implemented — and will return with more-specific scoping information when audits are initiated.