For the fourth time, a motion to conduct an in-depth audit of all city departments failed at the Augusta-Richmond County Commission’s full meeting on March 30.
District 10 Commissioner John Clarke and District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight have tried multiple times to push through a city-wide audit stating that such an audit would curb waste, promote transparency and foster public faith that the government is operating efficiently.
“People have lost faith in the government, and since we all work for the people, then we need to show them that we are listening to them,” McKnight said during the discussion.
Finance Director Donna Williams told commissioners that the city already conducts a yearly audit that conforms to state law and that the audit is already targeted to uncover potential financial irregularities. According to Williams, a citywide in-depth would be cost prohibitive and would likely take years to track every dollar spent by the government.
“In order to capture, recreate and audit every transaction that is done, it obviously requires somebody to look at that from start to finish, and that is cost prohibitive in most cases,” Williams said.
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District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom and District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett contended that such an audit could cost the city at least $4 million and both favored limiting the audit to the office of Mayor Hardie Davis Jr.
“Could we go where the smoke is? Can we do a forensic audit of the Mayor’s Office? We have had two former employees talk to the media about where to go look, what to go look for, and they even gave us a time frame,” Garrett proposed.
Frantom also objected to a full city audit on the grounds that such a thing would shut the government down and cause costly delays on projects that are ongoing.
Clarke refused to amend his motion, stating that Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. was already under investigation by the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, and he felt it was best to wait and see what their probe concluded.
District 2 Commissioner Dennis Williams defended the mayor and stated he would not vote for any audit of any kind.
“We have been talking about audits for years, and there is nothing about the mayor to get that in. The Mayor’s Office is none of our business,” Williams said.
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Currently, Davis is in the country of Qatar speaking at the Smart Cities Expo and was not present at the meeting.
Frantom pushed forward to limit the scope of an audit to the Mayor’s Office, stating what happens in that office is the business of the commission.
“We all know what has been going on in the Mayor’s Office. I’m sorry Commissioner Williams, but we have to care about every dollar in this government regardless of what department it is in,” Frantom said.
Clarke tried once more to convince his colleagues to go along with a full audit after a substitute motion was made to focus the audit solely on the Mayor’s Office.
“When I say forensic, I mean like a forensic autopsy. A forensic autopsy can prove innocence. It’s going after fact. So, I don’t understand why no one wants to get into the facts of what is going on in Augusta’s government,” Clarke said.
After lengthy debate, both motions failed by wide margins.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
