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Wicomico Council grills administration on grants audit after internal auditor says 52 items went unmet
Summary
An extended work session focused on an internal grants audit, with Internal Auditor Anjali Chatel and county finance staff disputing how requests were routed; council members and public speakers pressed for clearer entry meetings and faster delivery of requested records.
The Wicomico County Council spent most of its July 21 session probing how a recent grants audit unfolded after Internal Auditor Anjali Chatel said audit requests produced none of the 52 items she had sought for testing.
"I could put other audits on hold and get this one potentially, but that does a disservice to all the other audits going on," Chatel said during the work session while outlining the audit history and the documentation she requested. Deputy Finance Director Charles Schmeickel said the executive branch "has an obligation to provide the internal auditor the information that she requests." President Cannon emphasized the office’s statutory independence: "The internal auditor is independent. Period."
The internal-audit discussion centered on process breakdowns: who is the point person for collecting grant documentation, whether requests should go directly to department heads or through the grants administrator, and how the scope of the entry meeting evolved. Chatel said the audit began with a broad list that later narrowed; she described gaps in the county’s grant inventory and the difficulty of reconciling records in Munis. Grants administrator Laurie Carter described efforts to centralize files and a planned August 19 meeting to review Munis’ project-and-grant accounting function.
Council members pressed for clearer procedures. One member framed the immediate problem bluntly: the auditor asked for 52 items and received none. Several members recommended a written protocol to define the auditor’s routing and the administration’s role. Schmeickel proposed staying CC'd on audit requests so the administration can apply pressure when responses are late but said he would not interfere with audit independence.
Public commenters echoed the council’s concern. Joe White said, "0 out of 52 is a failure of that charter," and others asked what steps would produce timely records and reduce the perception of stonewalling.
Council asked staff to draft clearer entry-meeting procedures and include them in the grants-management manual. The internal auditor also said she will propose a narrowed audit scope for the next fiscal year (for example, focusing on airport grants or the five accounts previously excluded) so the audit can be completed without suspending other audit work.
What’s next: staff and the auditor will document a clarified process for routing audit requests and consider using a mix of focused (risk-based) and random audit selections so the internal auditor can complete meaningful testing without overburdening departments.
