Internal Audit

An internal audit at the University of the District of Columbia finds President Allen Sessoms remiss in submitting travel ex­penses and the governing board lax in reviewing them, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. The preliminary audit was delivered to UDC trustees Monday. Trustees requested the audit after revelations by WTTG (Channel 5) of alleged overspending by Sessoms, including first-class airfare and thousand-dollar tickets to nearby destinations. "The Office of the...

Prince William County's internal audit department was ineffective, its work was incomplete and the department did not abide by its own quality-control guidelines, a peer review of the county's former internal watchdog has found. The department's former acting director, Lawrence Keller, has raised questions, though, about the quality of the peer review, given that the audit department's former members were not given a chance to comment on or respond to the report. He said in an e-mail that he...

The University of the District of Columbia exercised scant oversight over its president's business and travel expenses, an internal audit has found, allowing Allen L. Sessoms to travel widely without developing a budget or seeking approvals required by his employment contract. Sessoms, who has led the District's public university since September 2008, has come under fire in recent weeks for traveling on university funds. WTTG (Channel 5) reported in February about several trips that generally...

A Prince William County pension plan for volunteer firefighters is under fire after a report revealed it has been mismanaged for years. Some critics are also asking why the report is dated June 22 but wasn't made public until last week by the Board of County Supervisors. Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said the report wasn't finalized because it was not yet accepted by supervisors on the three-member Board Audit Committee. A report must be accepted by the committee before it is made public, he said.

The Oct. 12 Metro article "Montgomery Planner Tried to Hinder Audit, Report Finds" gave an unbalanced impression of the recent internal audit of the Montgomery County Planning Department. The internal audit found some problems, and the department corrected them. That individuals within the agency disagreed is neither important nor big news. Disagreement about the scope and conduct of an audit is neither unethical nor a matter of interference. The director acknowledged that he had not adequately documented some expenses.

A Prince William County pension plan for volunteer firefighters is under fire after a report revealed it has been mismanaged for years. Some critics are also asking why the report is dated June 22 but wasn't made public until last week by the Board of County Supervisors. Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said the report wasn't finalized because it was not yet accepted by supervisors on the three-member Board Audit Committee. A report must be accepted by the committee before it is made public, he said.

DISTRICT RESIDENTS unfortunately have had reason to be uneasy about how the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue has conducted its business. Harriette Walters's theft of nearly $50 million was just beginning to fade from public memory when another employee was caught stealing public money. Given these past problems, it seems only prudent that the D.C. Council would want a thorough airing of new questions that recently have been raised about the office's operation. The office, which has the critical task of...

The District was warned more than once that employees could alter records used to calculate tax bills and refunds, leaving the system vulnerable to manipulation. Just as internal auditors this year found flaws in the database used to calculate D.C. property tax assessments, external auditors found problems of a similar nature in another database used to process bills and refunds. The District's Office of Tax and Revenue did not restrict the access of employees who were able to make...

WASHINGTON -- The government's mortgage insurance agency is doing a poor job of screening lenders that enter the program, an internal audit has found. The audit was completed last month by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general. It concluded that the Federal Housing Administration had insufficient controls to make sure lenders meet the agency's standards. About 20 percent of new loans today are backed by the FHA, up from as low as 2 percent during the subprime loan boom.

News that appeared July 5 to 10 in The Washington Post that is of interest to readers in Prince William County. Alfreedia Leona Gregg-Glover pleaded guilty Monday to charges of leaving her adopted 13-year-old daughter, Alexis "Lexie" Agyepong-Glover, for dead in a frigid creek in January. The 45-year-old Manassas resident faces a maximum of 51 years in prison for felony murder, felony child abuse and filing a false police report. After the hearing, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert called the case "a...

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted 6-1 on Tuesday to eliminate its audit department, a move that critics say could compromise the independence of the county's sole internal watchdog. Instead of having an staff of internal auditors, the county plans to outsource the work to a contractor, which supervisors said would reduce costs and create efficiencies. The vote came over the objections of the county's auditing department, which warned in a recent memo to the supervisors that if the job is outsourced,...

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday to eliminate the county's internal auditor department and outsource the work to a contractor, a move that critics charge would deprive the county of an internal, independent watchdog. In a strongly worded memo , the county's auditing department said the plan would undercut the county's credibility and bring in outsiders who are not familiar with the complicated workings of the government, which has an operating budget of $914...

The District was warned more than once that employees could alter records used to calculate tax bills and refunds, leaving the system vulnerable to manipulation. Just as internal auditors this year found flaws in the database used to calculate D.C. property tax assessments, external auditors found problems of a similar nature in another database used to process bills and refunds. The District's Office of Tax and Revenue did not restrict the access of employees who were able to make...

DISTRICT RESIDENTS unfortunately have had reason to be uneasy about how the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue has conducted its business. Harriette Walters's theft of nearly $50 million was just beginning to fade from public memory when another employee was caught stealing public money. Given these past problems, it seems only prudent that the D.C. Council would want a thorough airing of new questions that recently have been raised about the office's operation. The office, which has the critical task of...

A D.C. Council member requested this week that the city's chief financial officer explain what internal controls are in place to protect a computer- assisted mass appraisal database — the subject of an internal audit that warned that a handful of managers could change property values without detection. The 25-page audit described a "significantly flawed" system where managers known as "super-users" could write over data to potentially lower the value or change the classification of property.

In March, internal investigators delivered a draft audit of the District's troubled tax office to Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi . City officials said the report was finalized within days and has been available ever since for public review. Gandhi's office, however, did not disclose the report when The Washington Post, through the Freedom of Information Act, sought in June to review all of the agency's audits from 2002 to 2012. Gandhi's office has said that draft audits are exempt from...

A Prince William County woman pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of leaving her adopted 13-year-old daughter for dead in a frigid creek in January, and county police acknowledged that they could have responded better to numerous reports that the girl was being abused and neglected. Despite reports made to several county agencies over six years, the girl, Alexis "Lexie" Agyepong-Glover, was not removed from the home, and the case has highlighted shortcomings in the county's policies on child abuse and runaways.

I've been laid off from my job. I'm in my mid-forties. Is it really truly possible for a forty-something to change careers without going back to school and incurring thousands of student loan debts? Remember, there is no company to pay for my school and I need to be working again within six months. For those of us in the middle to lower rungs of the economic ladder, how feasible is a career change later in life? After 20 or more years on a career path, making a change is hard.

One of my former colleagues used to say, "analysis, paralysis" as we sat holed up in a conference room overanalyzing data before making each marketing decision. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the "see what sticks" philosophy, which I don't believe in, either. The perfect balance lies somewhere in between. But not all companies these days have the appetite or wallet to conduct long, drawn-out research — which frankly, isn't necessary. However, knowing your market and...

The University of the District of Columbia exercised scant oversight over its president's business and travel expenses, an internal audit has found, allowing Allen L. Sessoms to travel widely without developing a budget or seeking approvals required by his employment contract. Sessoms, who has led the District's public university since September 2008, has come under fire in recent weeks for traveling on university funds. WTTG (Channel 5) reported in February about several...