Baltimore City made $290,000 in duplicate payments to Safe Streets contractors, audit finds
BALTIMORE -- A new audit of Baltimore's anti-violence programs revealed the city made hundreds of thousands of dollars in duplicate payments to the non-profits operating Safe Streets.
The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, better known as MONSE, also used fake employee names to get contracts approved and funded, the audit conducted by the Department of Audits revealed.
The Audit
The performance audit cited overpayments and duplicate payments to contractors during fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
According to the report, the Department of Audits found three duplicate payments for three invoices in FY 2023 and FY 2024, which totaled $290,357.
MONSE also failed to verify the daily activities of some Safe Streets workers before paying them more than $257,000, according to the report.
In order to get the contracts to fund the program, MONSE told contractors to write in fake employee names, according to the audit.
According to a separate report by Baltimore's Inspector General, contractors were told, "We really just need a name that doesn't sound fictional. If we remove the position, we will need to revamp the budget, and time is of the essence."
MONSE's Executive Director Stefanie Mavronis insisted the problems have been fixed.
"Staff were held accountable. We're making sure that we have a robust financial infrastructure in place so that we can do the level of oversight that we need to do and that we are obligated to do," Mavronis said.
Mavronis said that included one termination.
The agency also found no evidence that funds were paid to any of the fictitious names identified in the Inspector General's report.
Fake Names
Some of the fake names included plays on the names of pro athletes: Allen Iverson, Lemur Jackson for Lamar Jackson and Merlin Humphrey, instead of Marlon Humphrey.
It stemmed from an old city policy —no longer in effect— that required names be included for contracts to be approved, even though people had not been hired to fill those positions.
"It was probably unnecessary to begin with. I wasn't there when they came up with this, but I will tell you I run into that in city government. People just do things the way they have done things. Now, it seems silly. Why would you do that that way?" asked Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry.
Duplicate Payments
"The issue with the duplicate payments is a serious one, but not one that is specific to MONSE. We have seen evidence of duplicate payments across city agencies," Henry said.
The auditor said no one with a fictitious name received a payment and Baltimore did not lose any of the money from the duplicate payments.
"They were not paid back to the city, they were netted against future invoices," city auditor Josh Pasch told Baltimore's spending board Wednesday.
Tighter Controls Moving Forward
The head of MONSE said daily logs will now be required for workers and promised no more fake names. She said MONSE will tighten how they manage their grants.
"It's about an opportunity for MONSE to improve our oversight function," Mavronis said. "It's about us making sure as a city agency that we continue to improve the way we review contracts, that we are making sure we have sufficient supporting documentation. This is in no way a reflection of the work that our frontline Safe Streets staff does."
Mavronis added, "We want to make sure that at city government, we're doing our piece so that we in no way cast a shadow on this important work."
The audits will now take place every two years.
"This was their first audit, and as a baseline, it actually wasn't that bad. It showed that they had already made some efforts at self-improvement," Comptroller Henry said. "And more importantly, they were open to all of the audit department's recommendations about further improvements they could make to their own controls."
The city's Inspector General stressed the importance of providing factual information on official government documents and said not obeying could be a violation of Maryland law for making false entries on public records.
Following the audit, the Department of Audits recommended that the Director of MONSE:
- Maintain a schedule of approved reimbursement requests and verify if payments have already been made when new requests come in.
- Ensure receipts are matched to invoices in Workday.
- Validate subrecipients' employee activity logs.
- Confirm that salaries billed match payroll registers.
- Recalculate invoice totals to verify the accuracy of billed amounts.
- Implement a secondary review process for invoices prior to payment approval.
