new state audit <\/a>is raising serious questions about spending inside Baltimore\u2019s Register of Wills office.<\/p>\nIn the report, which was triggered by an unnamed whistleblower, investigators found the office paid more than $1 million on media and promotions, including $200,000 on an \u201cinformational television show that was never aired\u201d and $1,300 on 500 manicure sets branded with the office\u2019s slogan, \u201cWhere there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For comparison, auditors looked at three similarly sized Register of Wills offices. One spent nothing on promotions, another $350 on pens, and a third $2500 on pens, calendars, and other items.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently, this audit was long overdue,\u201d said Taxpayer advocate David Williams, \u201cThis shows that even the most benign agency can waste money and have problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams notes auditors found no justification for the spending and suspect the city\u2019s competitive bidding process was intentionally skirted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere could be corruption tied to this. People need to see who the vendors are, where the money went, if there are any ties within the Register of Wills to make sure that someone in this agency hasn’t been profiting off of this,\u201d says Williams.<\/p>\n
The audit also raised concerns over employee oversight, finding evidence one employee with a six-figure salary was repeatedly absent from work, and another was accidently paid $5,000 after they left the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can’t go unanswered. There has to be responsibility put on someone, and really, it starts at the top,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n
In a letter, the city\u2019s Register of Wills Belinda Conaway, a long-time city official, called each of the allegations \u201cunsubstantiated\u201d, but added the recommendations are appreciated and will be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n
In response, auditors stressed their findings are backed by facts. \u201cDue to the lack of specificity in the response, it is unclear what specific information the Office asserts is unsubstantiated,\u201d said the state auditor, \u201cOur findings were developed based upon documentation and explanations received during our fieldwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can’t spend $1 million on promotions and media and $200,000 on a TV show and not have some repercussions,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n
While no legal action is being taken, auditors did refer certain findings to the state\u2019s ethics commission.<\/p>\n
Conaway is also up for reelection next year. Williams warns excessive spending could soon cost her at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is going to weigh heavily on voters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As of the time this article was written, Conaway has not responded to FOX45\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE (WBFF) \u2014 Manicure sets, pricy media promotions, and a TV show that never aired \u2013 all paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[27264,5462,27267,45,49,48,25302,133,27266,131,132,27263,3321,27265],"class_list":{"0":"post-36898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-audit","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-belinda-conaway","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-corruption","15":"tag-finance","16":"tag-media-promotions","17":"tag-personal-finance","18":"tag-personalfinance","19":"tag-register-of-wills","20":"tag-spending","21":"tag-taxpayers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}