For immediate release: Monday, April 16, 2018

Contact: Jolene Nieves Byzon, 215-300-1071

Philadelphia, PA – The City Controller’s Office released the Rebecca for Philadelphia Transition report, which details the office’s short- and long-term goals, as well as organizational, reporting and operational changes. The report reaffirms Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s commitment to transparency, efficiency and accountability. It is available online.

The Rebecca for Philadelphia Transition Team, made up of individuals from the public and private sector, was comprised of an advisory board and three committees: the personnel committee; the tech and transparency committee; and the audit committee.  Each committee provided recommendations on how to improve the function of the Office of the City Controller. Additionally, the report includes changes recommended by current division heads.

Highlights from the report include:

• An external audit of the Controller’s Office – Despite being an industry-accepted best practice, Philadelphia’s Office of the City Controller has not had an independent, external audit of its operating practices, procedures and standards in more than 20 years.  This audit is expected to be completed summer 2018;
• Risk rating for the Departmental Audit – The Audit Division will begin evaluating every City department using set criteria to assign them a tier rating for the FY18 Departmental Audit beginning in summer 2018.  Each tier will be tested on a number of standards determined by their tier, meaning a higher risk department will be tested on more rigorous standards.  This will allow for the City Controller’s Office to focus more resources on departments that are not meeting appropriate standards and expend fewer resources reviewing departments that are consistently performing well;
• Data releases – The Office of the Controller will release information about how the City spends taxpayer money or topics of interest to the public on a monthly basis; and
• Departmental Dashboard – The dashboard will rate the performance of City departments on a number of factors, like the compliance rate for Controller recommendations or a department’s diversity numbers.

The full report is available on www.philadelphiacontroller.org.