ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke City conducted an internal audit on the Gun Violence Prevention Commission after the commission received criticism on how they handle taxpayer money.
Roanoke City’s audit report looked at five objectives, one being the processes to request funds from the Gun Violence Commission.
The report states there was an online process in 2021-2022 and in between application processes, some organizations were invited to commission meetings to propose programs and in these cases, an application was not filed.
Another area the audit looked at was how the commission evaluated grants, the audit learned evaluations for 2022 proposals were not documented.
“One of the takeaways I think one of the things for us is to continue to strengthen our documentation, whether that’s work that we’re doing, or work organizations are doing,” Roanoke Vice Mayor Joe Cobb said.
Cobb admits the audit highlighted weaknesses the commission can address like better documenting online applications and better proposal evaluations and maintains there isn’t any fraud or misuse of allocating funds on the commission.
“I would say that is completely false one thing folks need to know is that audit determined there nothing fraudulent, illegal, or wasteful in this audit,” Cobb said.
While the audit reports no illegal activity, it revealed some staff members had conflicts of interest when applying for grants.
“I would say that we are all interconnected, we are all interconnected, we all know people, we all know organizations we know resources, where we identify a conflict of interest we need to name that, I believe the commissioners have appropriately recused themselves and that has been confirmed by the city manager and city attorney,” Cobb said.
Cobb says while the audit looked at weaknesses to improve, he says the commission has worked with city leaders to improve the commission.
“The city manager’s office to better and thoroughly outline when funds are received and we’re asked to advise in guiding that process,” Cobb said.
If you would like to read the full report, click here.