Westmoreland controller's office to put audits online

For the first time, audits from the Westmoreland County Controller’s Office are available online.

Controller Jeffrey Balzer said financial reports compiled by his staff will be made public, a departure from past practices that required formal requests under the state’s open records laws to review the department findings.

“I have been wanting to do this for some time. Our only reservation was that, oftentimes, reports include accounting jargon that may not be properly understood by the public. But, in the end, the benefits of full disclosure far outweigh any risks of misinterpretation,” Balzer said.

The Controller’s Office so far this year published 21 audits, including a review of the Recorder of Deeds Office as well as financial findings from district judge offices and tax collectors. Those audits can be accessed through the controller’s page on the county website.

Balzer said his staff of nine auditors is required to do annual reviews of the district courts and tax collectors as well as fiscal and performance reports of any other county office.

“The conditions on the ground will determine the departments we need to audit,” Balzer said.

In normal years, the Controller’s Office will conduct 50 to 70 audits. In 2019, the controller published 57 audits. Audits done before 2020 will not be published online, Balzer said.

Auditors also monitor the fraud and government abuse hotline set up several years ago by the controller to solicit anonymous calls from county staff and the public about potential abuses within the government.

The office received about a dozen complaints it investigated last year, officials said. Results of those investigations will not be disclosed, according to the controller.