General Assembly auditors have issued a report highly critical of the General Services Department’s handling of real estate appraisals and issuance of state identification cards.
The three years covered by the audit almost fell entirely under Gov. Robert Ehrlich. However, the current department secretary said his agency has fixed most of the problems identified in the audit.
The department “lacked sufficient policies and procedures for ensuring that certain real estate acquisitions and disposals were in the best interest of the state,” said Legislative Auditor Bruce Myers in his letter to the legislature’s Joint Audit Committee. Auditors found that in three transactions totaling $3.3 million, there were significant differences between the two appraisals. Yet the department accepted the higher appraisal, and didn’t get a third appraisal “to help ensure that the state received the most advantageous price,” the audit report said.
DGS appraisals became controversial last year when Comptroller Peter Franchot objected the state paid too much for an Eastern Shore property being acquired as open space. The assistant secretary in charge of real estate was fired after making comments to a reporter critical of the department accepting the higher appraisal.
That transaction was not covered in the new audit, but DGS spokesman Dave Humphrey said the appraisal procedures were changed last year.
In his response to the audit, General Services Secretary Alvin Collins said the new policy requires that when the differences in the two real estate appraisals are more than 30 percent, the department will pay a third appraiser to evaluate the property.
Myers told The Examiner there was “no politics” in the timing of audits. State law requires agencies to be audited every three years, unless there is a specific request from the legislature.
The auditors also found the department lacked controls and supervision over the 70,000 ID cards issued to state employees, lobbyists, contractors and reporters, allowing easy access to state buildings without going through security devices.
Collins also said the department has tightened its procedures for verifying who should be issued the cards, and would seek to recover the cards of those leaving state service.
The auditors also were critical of the department’s failure to spend the money appropriated for the demolition of the old library on the site where a new Rockville district courthouse was to be built. The department said it was holding off due to community opposition, and lack of funds. Gov. Martin O’Malley and the legislature have budgeted $71 million to construct the courthouse.
