Millions of dollars in unauthorized spending discovered in major U.S. city
Topline: The City of Baltimore spent $2.9 million on “unauthorized procurements” in 2024, according to OpenTheBooks.com’ review of the city’s Board of Estimates records. The 72 purchases circumvented city spending regulations and came without proper approval or documentation.
Key facts: All contracts in Baltimore must be approved by the Board of Estimates, which includes the mayor, comptroller and city council president. The process is meant to reduce wasteful spending and ensure multiple companies are given the opportunity to bid on contracts.
A few of the unauthorized procurements were made because of emergencies like Hurricane Debby, but most were due to mistakes or missed deadlines, OpenTheBooks.com found.
The Sheriff’s Department forgot to cancel its staff membership at Merritt Athletics Club and it renewed automatically for $65,400.
The Public Works Department was supposed to end its contract for document scanning with ARC Document Solutions in November 2022, but the agency forgot to tell the company until June 2023. The mistake was caught last year and $36,000 was paid for the extra work.
The fire department canceled a planned staff boat party last summer because of rain, but it was too late to cancel the catering. They ended up paying $572 to Mission BBQ.
Some unauthorized procurements took years to find. Last July, the city paid $9,390 to Kleen-Rite Corporation for dental supplies purchased without permission in 2021.
Staff changes also caused some contract requests to be forgotten, leaving the city without a vendor by the time goods or services were needed. That forced the Recreation and Parks department to spend $50,120 at the last minute on referees for a youth basketball league.
Other errors happened because the city asked companies to bid on contracts in its old software system, but switched to the new platform Workday and forgot to transfer the contracts.
The city Bureau of Procurement did not return OpenTheBooks.com’s request for comment.
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Background: The unauthorized procurements were not the only spending errors Baltimore made last year.
The city made a mess of its $34 million rental car purchases, spending more money on an old contract years after it was known to be overpriced.
Baltimore even spent money on cars that did not belong to the city, reimbursing one resident $51,141 after auctioning off her Toyota Tacoma by mistake.
Summary: Baltimore residents would notice immediately if tens of thousands dollars mistakenly went missing from their bank account. City funds should be treated with the same level of concern.
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