[Baltimore Sun] FOX45: Baltimore paid Safe Streets without verifying work, submitted fake employee names to Board of Estimates, reports find
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An audit of the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) found the Safe Streets violence interruption program received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for employee compensation without confirmation employees were performing their “daily activities.”
The performance audit, obtained Tuesday by FOX45 a day before its public release, is the first since MONSE was added to the list of city agencies subject to biennial auditing. Baltimore City officials on the Biennial Audits Oversight Commission added MONSE to the list following reporting by FOX45 News.
A separate report issued Tuesday by the Office of the Inspector General of the City of Baltimore also found that MONSE “sent multiple emails to contractors that appeared to encourage the use of fake employee names for contracts submitted and later approved by the” Board of Estimates regarding Safe Streets.
“The OIG identified 26 names that may not be valid,” the report said. “The OIG turned the information found over to law enforcement for potential further investigation.”
Among the names identified as suspect were “Lemur Jackson,” “Merlin Humphrey” and “Allen Iverson.”
In the performance audit, Baltimore City Auditor Josh Pasch found that the daily activities of Safe Streets employees, who are employed by outside nonprofits, were often not logged in an electronic system that is supposed to be monitored by the city. MONSE reimbursed their employers regardless, paying out $257,322 over the course of nearly three years without “validating the daily activities” of the employees.
Pasch also found that MONSE made three duplicate payments to organizations administering Safe Streets sites in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. These duplicate payments totaled $290,357.
MONSE agreed to several of Pasch’s recommendations to improve its internal controls, including closer tracking of invoices, validating employee activity logs and strengthening its payroll review process.
“Although we did not identify any instances of fraud, control weakness creates susceptibility to fraud,” Pasch wrote in the audit. “It is important to note that the implementation of these recommendations is critical to prevent fraud if the program continues using subrecipients.”
MONSE also provided a lengthy memo to Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry outlining how it plans to implement the recommendations. In the memo, MONSE pledged to “ensure compliance with all requirements moving forward.”
The audit prompted the investigation and report from Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming that found MONSE may have used fake names when submitting Safe Streets position approvals to the Board of Estimates.
Nine of the 26 names the city OIG identified as suspicious “were budgeted for $285,000 over various contracts,” the report said. The OIG requested that MONSE review the entire roster of employees listed in the contract budgets and verify their authenticity with the contractors.
In response to the OIG’s findings, MONSE said the agency “took immediate action to better understand the scope of the problem” and is committed to accountability.
“Personnel changes were made to include termination and changes in employment responsibilities,” the memorandum reads. Mayor Brandon Scott told FOX45 that one person at MONSE has been fired.
MONSE said it found no evidence that funds were paid out in relation to any of the fictitious names revealed in the OIG report.
Pasch confirmed in his audit that the names investigated by the inspector general “were never employed by” the organizations administering Safe Streets.
Mayor Scott and MONSE employees have maintained the work that violence interrupters do, along with their names, schedules and mediation efforts need to remain secret from the taxpayers funding the program to maintain the employees’ safety and effectiveness of their work.
Over the last three years, FOX45 News has uncovered through court records several people affiliated with Safe Streets who have gone on to be charged with various felonies, including federal racketeering, drug possession and distribution.
Got a story idea or news tip? Contact Julian Baron at jtbaron@sbgtv.com or Mikenzie Frost at mbfrost@sbgtv.com.
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