The city auditor today reported that Baltimore taxpayers were due $3.2 million from the Enoch Pratt Free Library last year – and the library owes the city nearly the same amount this year.

The library’s failure to remit funds in a timely manner was one of seven serious deficiencies (known as “material weaknesses”) cited in a report by City Auditor Robert McCarty Jr.

The auditor also said the public library – which gets 42% of its funds from the city – keeps its financial ledger in such disarray that it was impossible to find documentation “for the majority” of the journal entries tested.

“Without proper documentation, we were unable to determine if journal entries were authorized by management, adequately supported and charged to the proper account number,” McCarty told the Board of Estimates.

Uncorrected Problems

McCarty said he identified the same problems in an audit last year, but they have continued uncorrected.

After McCarty notified the library of the missing $3.2 million, the agency remitted the funds to the city on April 11. The library says it will remit “a significant portion” of funds still due to the city “in the coming weeks.”

Other problems cited by today’s audit included “unexplained differences” of $50,000 in an endowment bank account (which was eventually reconciled) and $29,213 in fees that McCarty says should have been transferred to the city.

The library said it found documentation showing that $5,300 of the $29,000 “was actually federal grant revenues” and is still seeking to identify the remaining $23,913.

“We Welcome the Audit”

Asked by The Brew to respond to today’s audit, Roswell Encina, the library’s director of communications, said, “We welcome the audit by the city. We think it helps us correct procedures and do a better job.”

He insisted that the library “has implemented everything the city has recommended or [is] in the process of doing so.”

“The good thing you can say about this audit report is it shows no money was wasted or lost,” he added.

Asked about the audit’s conclusion that library management failed to respond to earlier deficiencies, Encina said the library was hampered by personnel problems and a hiring freeze.

Encina pointed out that the library is one of the few city agencies that is regularly audited. “The Police Department doesn’t get that [a city audit]. The Fire Department, Public Works, don’t get that.”

Starting this year, 13 agencies – including police, fire, housing, public works and transportation – are required by a city charter amendment to undergo audits every fourth year.

The city auditor has begun reviewing the records of the Recreation and Parks Department. The timetable and scope of the other audits have not been finalized.

Sickness and Death

In its written response, the library said the sudden death of a fiscal technician, retirement of its chief of fiscal services, and the serious illness of a part-time CPA resulted in the problems cited in the audit report.

“The loss of those three individuals inevitably caused delays in submission,” the library said. Then, in another blow, the agency’s newly hired fiscal technician “experienced an accident on the job and has been out for nearly six months.”

As a result of these setbacks, “We have hired an accounting temp to assist us with keeping up with day-to-day activities and have implemented several changes in internal procedures in an effort to stay on track so that this does not occur again.”

The seven material weaknesses cited by today’s audit compares with three material weaknesses noted in 2011 – and none in years 2009 and 2010.

With a yearly budget of $34 million and $99 million in net assets, the Pratt has a central library on Cathedral Street and 21 branches. Carla D. Hayden has served as its chief executive officer for the last 20 years.

– Fern Shen contributed to this article.