Supervisors review controller—s nonprofit performance audit, probe red-flag process for troubled providers

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Feb. 16 reviewed findings from an August 2022 citywide nonprofit performance audit and the controller—s fiscal-year 2022 nonprofit monitoring and capacity-building program, with supervisors pressing staff on how serious monitoring findings are communicated to departments and the Board.

The controller—s office and City Performance Division framed the scope of the audit and monitoring program. Audit staff said the review examined more than 2,000 contracts in the fiscal-year 2017-18 universe, sampled 30 contracts (total payments in the sample of $42,800,000) and found that performance measures and reporting varied widely across departments, which limited the city—s ability to evaluate the overall impact of funds paid to community-based organizations (CBOs). Auditor Amanda Kelly said the audit applied a common program taxonomy to group services and recommended standardizing monitoring, strengthening performance measurement, and increasing transparency.

"We need to make sure that those taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and that the critical services that our nonprofits deliver are being delivered with positive outcomes," Vice Chair Catherine Stephanie told the hearing, noting the city contracts roughly $1.4 billion annually for nonprofit services.

City Performance staff described the monitoring program that launched in 2005 to centralize fiscal and compliance reviews across 12 participating departments.…