30 repeat audit findings in MD agencies corrected, Moore’s office says

Thirty repeat audit findings in Maryland agencies have been resolved since January 2023, according to an April letter from Gov. Wes Moore‘s chief of staff, shared exclusively with The Daily Record as the governor prepared to sign fiscal accountability and audit-related bills Tuesday.

“While this progress is meaningful, we recognize that additional work remains and will continue to engage agencies regularly to ensure continued progress in the months ahead,” Lester Davis, Moore’s chief of staff, wrote in the April 22 letter to the Maryland General Assembly‘s Legislative Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee.

In early February, Moore issued a directive for his cabinet members to review and strengthen audit resolution procedures in an effort to enhance fiscal responsibility across Maryland’s executive agencies through programmatic oversight, reviews of state and federal audit findings and resolution processes, and centralized reporting to track agency progress. A news release at the time said Davis would be responsible for monitoring agency progress and track outcomes.

In a statement at the time of the announcement, Moore said, “Marylanders are rightly conscious about how and where taxpayer dollars are spent” given the rising cost of living, pointing to actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We continue to confront outdated practices in our fiscal systems that have spanned multiple administrations and decades head-on,” he said Feb. 6. “We will act with urgency to drive reform and deliver more results for Marylanders.” 

In the letter sent to the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee nearly two and a half months after the governor issued his directive, Davis wrote that the Moore administration met with each of the 23 executive agencies audited since January 2023 to discuss accountability, internal controls, places improvements can be made and where secretaries had disputes with findings from the Office of Legislative audits, a nonpartisan body that regularly audits the state’s public agencies and institutions.

According to Davis, these discussions led to the resolution of 30 repeat audit findings and caused eight agencies updating their standard operating procedures to improve “fiscal management and responsibility,” five to improve the centralization of their operations and 11 to recruit chief financial officers for their senior leadership teams.

Davis’ letter to the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, which is headed by legislators, includes an index detailing each resolution, including for a repeat finding that the Maryland Social Services Administration lacked necessary measures to ensure that local departments of social services were notified when children were born to individuals who had previously had their parental rights terminated because of abuse and neglect. This had led to “significant” delays in familial environment assessments, the index reads.

Beyond the conversations with cabinet leadership, Davis wrote that the Department of Budget and Management’s Audit and Finance Compliance Unit and members of the general accounting division from the office of the comptroller have started meeting regularly with audit management staff across agencies to share best practices and methods of strengthening fiscal and programmatic oversight.

The letter states that the group, which has met four times this year, will continue to provide “targeted technical assistance” to agencies as they work to resolve repeat audit findings.

Moving forward, Davis wrote, Moore’s executive agencies are developing proposals to identify where funding might be needed to address additional repeat audit findings. Earlier this year, the governor signed Maryland’s $70.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, which included $10 million to specifically correct these recurring agency issues.

“We know some of these repeat findings span multiple administrations and require systemic fixes that may take years to resolve, and therefore require additional funding to do so,” Davis wrote.

As Davis’ letter became public, Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, all Democrats, signed 11 bills Tuesday aimed at improving fiscal responsibility in Maryland, as well as to allow state agencies to more easily address audit findings.

Among them was legislation to codify the Audit and Finance Compliance Unit, increase reporting requirements when agencies decline to pursue fiscal recourse against companies with which they contract, and enhance background and criminal records checks for teachers and adults in households that receive funding via the state’s Guardianship Assistance Program.

“These new laws and investments will substantially reinforce the work we began earlier this year to sharpen audit compliance and responsiveness through lasting change,” Davis wrote.

In an interview with The Daily Record on Tuesday, Sen. Shelly Hettleman, a Baltimore County Democrat and co-chair of the Joint Audit and Evaluations Committee, said it seems that the Moore administration is “taking seriously the conversations we’ve had over the past couple of months and as also demonstrated by the bills being signed into law today.”

“I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the administration to ensure that there is accountability and transparency in how our tax dollars are being used,” Hettleman said. “I do think that the legislature and the administration work together well to get these bills across the finish line that I think are going to have a positive effect on government operations.”

The Maryland Office of Legislative Audits declined to comment.

This story has been updated with Hettleman’s comments and the OLA’s decline to comment.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported how long it took for the audits to be corrected. We regret the error.