Pittsburgh audit turns up problems with fund used to pay for umpires in city parks

Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb has placed a hold on a money going into an account that pays for umpires and other officials and expenses during city sports league games.

Lamb said the Parks and Recreation Department in 2019 had an informal agreement with the Pittsburgh Sports Officials, an organization that provided umpires for baseball games. He said the city paid the organization $30,353 for umpires last year through an imprest fund totaling $57,539.

Pittsburgh Sports Officials deposited the money into its own account, co-mingled it with its own money and failed to reconcile the account, Lamb said. Auditors found an unexplained balance of $1,060 at the end of 2019 that Lamb said should either be repaid to the city or used for outstanding umpire expenses.

He said the parks department should also have an official contract with the organization.

“We’re not talking about huge chunks of money when you look at the budget as a whole, but it’s public money,” Lamb said. “We do think it’s more of a recordkeeping problem. What we’ve said to the parks department, and what we’re going to hold them to, is you’ve got to clean this up before we replenish or allow any more money into that imprest fund for these purposes.”

Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto, referred to the city’s response contained in the audit.

The parks department accepted the findings and agreed to make changes based on the recommendations of auditors, according to the audit.

“Following the conclusion of the controller’s review, all payments and disbursements have been made, closing out all related funds paid to PSO,” the department wrote in a response to the audit. It added that it would work diligently to ensure clear, concise and transparent accounting in the future.