Over $7 million in waste identified by Baltimore's Office of the Inspector General

The Office of Inspector General released its2021 annual report, which highlights big progress over last year.

Ending fiscal year 2021 the OIG found $7,051,000 of waste and savings, that's over $4million more than what was identified in 2020.

The OIG hotline had 705 complaints. The office issued 36 reports and held 27 outreach activities.

Baltimore City's Inspector General, Isabel Cumming, in an opening statement in the report, writes, "I pledge that the OIG will continue to work tirelessly to improve the Baltimore we share by providing residents and employees with an efficient and effective mechanism for reporting financial fraud, waste, and abuse."

Back in December of 2020 a joint Inspector Generals report found decades of issues with the water system shared by Baltimore City and Baltimore County. The report found, out of 400,000 water meters in the city and county, more than 20,000 had faulty equipment. As result, many meters came back with a reading of zero which in turn inaccurately charged customers only the minimum water rate.

Investigators with the OIG handle from three to five active cases, at a time. The OIG also has a pending investigations list of 47 cases.

There are several ways to report financial fraud, waste or abuse to the OIG.

1. Call the hotline at 443-984-3476 or 1-800-417-0430
2. Email a completed Complaint Form below to OIG@baltimorecity.gov
3. Fill out the Complaint Form, and mail it to 100 North Holliday Street, Room 635, Baltimore, MD 21202

In April 2020 ethics complaints were added to the Office of Inspector General to not only investigate claims of ethics violations, but also assist in training of current and new city employees.

If you would like to let the advisory board know how the OIG is doing, Baltimore City residents can leave feedback here.

See the annual report from 2020 here.