Council asked to expand outside accountant’s contract
City’s Finance Committee recommends doubling $50,000 agreement to cover firm’s increased workload
The city of Santa Fe could continue to use an outside accounting and consulting firm to support the work of the city Finance Department, if the City Council accepts a recommendation to expand the contract of a company that was brought on after a recent external review found municipal operations are vulnerable to possible fraud and waste.
The city Finance Committee on Monday endorsed a plan to double the city’s original $50,000 agreement with the Albuquerque firm A. Anderson Accounting and Consulting, an action that Finance Director Adam Johnson said requires approval of the council.
Asked whether additional contract adjustments could follow, Johnson said, “I would suggest there will be.”
Over the past month, according to a city document, “the level of work hours required to complete [the firm’s tasks] has increased.”
The Anderson group was hired to support city finance staff in late September, a week before the fraud assessment review was made public and two high-level city workers were placed on paid administrative leave.
Johnson said at the time the firm would serve as a “stopgap” and assist him and staff in meeting their obligations.
On Monday, he said the scope of work hadn’t changed but the hours required had increased as the city’s annual external audit is finalized. Johnson told councilors they could expect “periodic” reports from either himself or the contractor.
The firm’s tasks, according to its contract, include supplementing work performed by key finance personnel, developing and implementing a “financial matrix” that would address recommendations made in the fraud assessment review, working with the city’s current external auditor and reviewing procedures to “improve overall performance” of accounting with the city’s new enterprise resource and planning system.
The external audit report is due in December, Johnson said, and councilors could expect the financial matrix by mid-December at the latest.
City Manager Brian Snyder said in late September that hiring Anderson would address the “community perception” about “trust issues” that he said might greet the recent external review, which identified “extremely high risks of fraud” in municipal operations.
He said hiring a firm like Anderson would “provide, I believe, some of that third-party expert credibility.”
According to the city contract, the firm’s principal is paid $195 an hour, its director paid $135 an hour and a staff worker is paid $60 an hour.
The contract termination date is June 30, unless terminated sooner by either the city or contractor with 60 days written notice.