Syracuse lawmakers and Mayor Ben Walsh received a draft audit on Wednesday of the city’s Bureau of Information Technology and its payroll modernization project.
The audit was conducted by FoxPointe Solutions, a division of The Bonadio Group.
On Thursday at 11 a.m., lawmakers plan to host a public meeting of the Finance, Taxation and Assessment Committee in the Common Council chambers.
The report will not be released before the meeting, according to Councilor Corey Williams, who chairs the committee, and a mayor’s office spokesman.
Williams is unsure of what exactly will be discussed at the Thursday morning meeting, he said.
City officials and lawmakers received the audit late Wednesday afternoon, city spokesman Greg Loh wrote to Central Current in an email.
“Bonadio/Foxpointe requested that the draft not be socialized pending a final report,” Loh wrote. “Respecting that request, we are unable to provide more information at this time.”
The Bonadio Group, an accounting and consulting firm, also performed the council-ordered analysis of the city budget. The firm also conducts business with the city frequently.
Councilors in January approved the audit after reporting by Central Current revealed a delay to the city’s $8 million payroll modernization project.
About five days after the council approved the audit by FoxPointe, Central Current also reported that a contractor involved in the project accused the city of improperly passing over her firm to work with Ernst & Young, a multinational consulting firm.
Susan Fahrenkrug, the contractor, accused the city of using Advanced IT, as a pass-through. Fahrenkrug compiled a 200-plus-page document with emails and other documents to make her case.
She initially provided that document to Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, who shared the document with city lawyers.
Tim Rudd, the city’s former budget director, wrote in a memo to the city’s lawyers that former Chief Administrative Officer Frank Caliva confided in Rudd that the city used Advanced IT to avoid an upper limit on the dollar amount of work Ernst & Young could do for the city.
Caliva resigned just days after Central Current reported that the payroll modernization project had been delayed.
After city officials received the complaint, the city conducted its own investigation of the allegations, a city spokesperson told Central Current at the time.
“The investigation determined local and state requirements were satisfied and that, through the vendors involved, the City was receiving the services for which it contracted,” wrote then-city spokesperson Brooke Schneider.
The New York State Attorney General’s Office has also been reviewing the document Fahrenkrug provided to city officials.
It’s unclear what the audit will show, though it was intended to be completed about two months after the Common Council approved the audit.
City officials in April told Central Current they believed they had set in place a new timeline to complete the payroll project, without the involvement of Advanced IT and Ernst & Young.
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