Projections indicated that there would be record numbers of homeless over the next few years, so the city decided that it was important to make shelters available. Accordingly, contracts were signed with two hotels in the downtown area over a three-year period. The hotels committed to have rooms available in the two coldest months of the year, and the city agreed to pay for the rooms at the rate of $40 per night. The hotel rooms were intended for homeless families.
At the same time, local churches got together and arranged to have volunteers staff the churches and provide hot meals so that the churches could be used as shelters by single individuals. The result was that the hotel rooms were not used, and over a period of three years, the city paid almost $850,000 for empty rooms. This was publicized when the Auditor General for the city published his annual report.
REQUIRED
a. What objectives and criteria would the city Auditor General have used when conducting his audit of expenditures for the homeless?
b. Draft a section of the value-for-money report that would ex-plain how the audit was conducted as well as the findings.
c. What recommendations for improvement might be included in the audit report?