Montgomery County staff made mistakes on 70 percent of the commercial construction permits issued over 11 months, leaving the county short a total of $71,000, an internal audit has determined.
The audit found the county undercharged by $78,000 and overcharged by $7,000 in 38 of 54 transactions.
Carla Reid, director of the Department of Permitting Services, said she asked for the audit because she had noticed some errors being made by her staff. She said she was concerned about the number of mistakes the audit revealed, but was relieved that most of them were minor errors that are “very fixable.”
Mistakes staff made included data entry errors such as not entering enough zeros in dollar amounts, processing the wrong kind of permit — for example, for office space instead of retail — and granting fee exceptions without explaining why, according to the audit report.
The audit, which was contracted out to a private company, cost taxpayers $16,000 and is the only internal audit completed this fiscal year.
Permit fees are used to fund the county’s road and school projects.
Reid said her department had implemented many of the recommendations made by the auditing firm, including “extensive training” with her staff to ensure forms are properly filled out and checked.
She said she has found few errors since the audit.
Reid added in a memo to senior county staff that the county had collected much of the underpaid fees identified in the audit and said the county attorney’s office is investigating how far back the county can legally go to collect more fees.
