The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) in Baltimore has agreed to implement reforms following a city audit that discovered weak financial monitoring controls, including a failure to track payments for the Safe Streets program. Auditor Josh Pasch presented the audit to Baltimore City's Board of Estimates. He uncovered $257,322 dispensed over three years without proper validation of the daily activities for violence interrupters employed through non-profits, as reported by FOX Baltimore.
Amid significant findings, the audit also revealed three cases of duplicate payments to Safe Streets operators in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, summing up to $290,357. During the audit, as revealed by Pasch at the Board of Estimates meeting, it was found that six phony names were included in contracts, according to WBALTV. MONSE has been outside the routine audit schedule, spurring talks of potentially adding the office to the biennial audits list, with appropriate funding for the auditor's team enlargement, as conveyed by Comptroller Bill Henry.
The Director of MONSE, Stefanie Mavronis, affirmed that several audit recommendations are already being implemented. Mavronis stated, "We want to make sure those daily logs are complete and moving forward," but emphasized that logs are not the sole productivity metric within the Safe Streets initiative. Nevertheless, MONSE has been questioned over its transparency practices, mainly since Mavronis declined to commit to the public release of timecards, schedules, or names of the employees, assuring meticulous review but avoiding promises of more comprehensive disclosure, as detailed by FOX Baltimore.
Correspondingly, the Inspector General’s report linked fake names on contracts to duplicate payments and passed the findings to law enforcement for potential further investigation. These fictitious names, such as ‘Allen Iverson’ and ‘Lemur Jackson,’ were placeholders for vacant contract positions. Mavronis stated, as per WBALTV, that admitting the submission of anything falsely is unacceptable and confirming that procedures have been changed to prevent similar issues. Following these developments, actions have been taken including the termination of one employee involved in the discrepancies.
MONSE is working to rebuild trust in the community while addressing calls for better oversight and internal controls. By improving payroll reviews and verifying activity logs, they aim to strengthen financial accountability and transparency. According to Mavronis' presentation to the BOE, all reforms are expected to be fully implemented by April 15, 2025.
