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City auditors unveil tracking tool and press for enterprise risk management
Summary
The Office of City Auditor demonstrated a new in-house Power App findings tracker and Tableau dashboard to monitor open corrective actions and proposed establishing an enterprise risk management program and staffing to ensure timely remediation of audit findings.
On June 22 the Office of City Auditor demonstrated a newly developed in‑house corrective-action tracking system and urged the city to adopt an enterprise risk management (ERM) function to coordinate and accelerate remediation of open audit findings.
Jessica Peterson, Quality Assurance and Training Manager, described a Power App that will let auditors enter each audit finding, capture management action items, required deliverables and supporting documentation, and automate communications with auditees. The tracker categorizes delay causes — budget, technology, policy and cross‑departmental issues — and marks status color‑coded by on‑time, open or past due. The office also showed plans for a Tableau dashboard that will provide the Audit Committee and public with on‑demand access to unresolved recommendations and progress metrics.
City Auditor Robert Timmerman reviewed the office's inventory of open corrective-action items by year and explained a shift to more nuanced risk ratings based on likelihood and impact rather than treating most items as uniformly high risk. He said the new tracker will enable the office and committee to request auditee appearances for overdue or high-risk items and to draft formal committee letters asking departments to explain remediation steps.
Timmerman and staff proposed that the city build an ERM program led by an executive-level risk officer and a small team (two to three staff) to break down silos, harmonize oversight practices and reduce the number of longstanding open corrective-action items. The audit office recommended bringing selected departments before the committee (proposed October sessions) to review progress on high‑risk or overdue items.
Committee members welcomed the tracker and requested filtering and reporting features (by department, finding type, aging and closure reason) and asked that closed records distinguish between items closed because the risk was mitigated and items closed because management formally accepted the risk. Auditors said one additional FTE is requested for 2027 and that a mid-term staff target of about 20 total positions would be appropriate if ERM and expanded oversight responsibilities proceed.
The Audit Committee received and filed the presentation and will receive follow-up demonstrations and additional reporting on tracker features and auditee responses.
