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City Auditor

Mission . . .

The City Auditor's office provides audit, consulting, and investigative services to identify and minimize risks, maximize efficiencies, improve internal controls, and strengthen accountability to Mesa’s citizens.

 

Organization . . .

The City Auditor is appointed by the Mesa City Council and is organizationally independent of City operations. This independence enables us to perform audits and report findings with uncompromised objectivity.

Services . . .

Audits

Audits of City departments, activities, programs, contracts, etc. are conducted to evaluate: 

• Adequacy of internal controls to prevent or detect fraud.
• Safeguarding of assets, from loss, damage or inappropriate use.
• Compliance with laws, regulations, policies, contracts, grant terms, etc.
• Accuracy of reported financial and performance information.
• Economy and efficiency of operations.
• Accomplishment of specified goals and objectives.

Audit findings and recommendations are reported to the Council Audit & Finance Committee and posted on our Web site

 

Consulting

Consulting encompasses a wide array of non-audit services, including but not limited to: 

• Providing general guidance on internal controls and related matters, including application-level IT controls.
• Reviewing credit card acceptance sites for compliance with PCI DSS.
• Performing limited reviews and analyses of financial statements submitted by potential contractors in connection with RFQs.
• Observing MesaStat presentations and, as resources permit, periodically reviewing financial/performance data and measures presented by City staff.
• Performing periodic random reviews of Council Reports, to ensure that the information provided to decision-makers is accurate and complete.
  
  
  

Consulting services may or may not result in formal reports, but findings are always reported to management.  When appropriate, findings may also be reported to the Audit and Finance Committee.

Investigations
The City Auditor is responsible for ensuring that all reports received through the City’s Fraud and Ethics Hotline are adequately investigated. However, we also investigate allegations that come to us directly. Administered by a third-party, the Hotline provides anonymity; however, direct reporting is often more effective in that we are usually provided with more complete information. Given this fact, we pledge to honor all requests for anonymity to the extent allowable by law.

How we decide what to audit . . .

Each fiscal year, an Audit Plan is approved by the City Auditor, City Manager, Mayor and Audit & Finance Committee. The Audit Plan is developed based on a combination of many factors, including but not limited to the following:

• Requests and/or suggestions made by the Mayor, other Councilmembers, the City Manager and/or members of the Executive Management Team.
• Federal and/or state mandates.
• Risk assessments, which include consideration of:
  • Prior audit history or lack thereof.
  • Knowledge of existing internal control systems.
  • Complexity of operations.
  • Regulation levels (highly regulated vs. unregulated activities).
  • Cash handling volume and number of locations.
  • Impact of potential findings on public perception.
  • Activities most commonly susceptible to fraud.
    

 

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