Portland City Auditor

We're thrilled to share the key areas that the Audit Services Division plans to examine in the coming fiscal year. We carry out performance audits to provide objective information to the public. We report audit findings and recommendations publicly to hold City government accountable and ensure its actions are transparent.

Each year, we can only look at a handful of topics. To create this year's audit schedule, we prioritized issues related to public health, safety, and equity, and ways to respond to current and future needs of leaders and residents. City leaders and our audit team provided valuable input to help select these topics. We also invited local non-profit organizations to participate in focus groups and we sincerely appreciate the perspectives they offered. We look forward to drawing on their wisdom during our audits.

These topics were finally selected based on opportunities to provide adequate and timely insights to inform the City’s transition to a new form of government. This list reflects the greatest areas of concern for Portlanders and potential to build trust. A number of these audits were announced previously and are currently underway. We plan to resume presenting audit results to City Council as these audits are completed.

Here are the topics grouped by service area:

Administration

Information Technology Procurement (underway)

City's Approach to Managing its Assets

Community and Economic Development

Joint Office of Homeless Services' Shelter Services (underway)

Inclusionary Housing Policy Implementation and Results (underway)

Joint Office of Homeless Services' Rapid Rehousing Program

City’s Plans for Climate Justice

Public Works

Management of Vision Zero by the Bureau of Transportation (underway)

Public Safety

Workload Management in the Fire and Rescue Bureau (underway)

City Efforts to Reduce and Prevent Gun Violence

Culture and Livability

Parks and Recreation – Fiscal Management (underway)

City Arts Program’s Management of Arts Education and Access Fund (Arts Tax) and Relationship with the Regional Arts and Culture Council

The topics we plan to begin are subject to scoping, the process we use to research topics, identify areas that can benefit from our review, and plan our work. New topics may be substituted or added if higher priority issues emerge during the year.

If you have any ideas for future audit topics, please click here to suggest them.

Suggest an audit topic! We welcome your ideas and suggestions to improve government in Portland!

We recently completed an audit regarding Portland Bureau of Transportation and its methods to ensure capital projects meet required specifications. While there are processes in place, our investigation revealed certain loopholes within the system that could allow for avoiding said processes.

While we found no evidence of inspections being bypassed, the current system has certain vulnerabilities. It's crucial to ensure project management software like e-Builder can reliably track necessary sign-offs to maintain our capital projects' integrity. Inconsistencies in practices and a lack of reports for exceptions are concerns we must address.

We need internal changes to ensure the wise use of taxpayer dollars and maintain quality control. Our recommendations include more effective monitoring of the paynote process and incorporating allowable exceptions into e-Builder.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has responded with agreement on our recommendations. Transparency, accountability, and efficiency are of utmost importance, and we are committed to continually improving processes that impact our city.

The full report is accessible on our website at

Portland Bureau of Transportation: Process in place to ensure capital projects meet specifications, but there were ways around it Transportation had a formal process to document inspections before making payments, but staff were able to work around steps. Supervisors didn’t have procedures to identify allowable exceptions. We make recommendations to ensure staff follow the process and that supervisors are aware of exceptions...