Neighborhood Food Environments Program Grant Compliance
Audit: January 2022

Airport Concessions Management
Audit: February 2022

Fair Elections Fund
Audit: May 2022

Peña Boulevard Improvements Constructions Contract
Audit: May 2022

Denver Water City Services
Audit: June 2022

Mental Health Services in Denver's Jail Systems
Audit: June 2022

Cybersecurity: Application Security
Assessment: July 2022

City Equity Program and Practices
Audit: August 2022

Co-Responder Expansion Grant and Contract Compliance
Audit: September 2022

Information Technology Vendor Management
Audit: September 2022

Etai's Café Concessions Contract
Audit: November 2022

Residential Trash, Recycling and Composting Services
Audit: November 2022 

Audit Services follows up on all recommendations an audited agency agreed with to determine whether city agencies sufficiently addressed our audit findings and mitigated the risks our audits identified. We communicate our follow-up activities through formal reports published online, specifying whether and how each recommendation was implemented or why an agency did not implement an agreed-upon recommendation. The city’s implementation of our recommendations is one way we measure the impact of our audit work.

Homeless Services
Follow-up: February 2022
Original Audit: April 2029(PDF, 7MB)

Syringe Access and Sharps Disposal Programs
Follow-up: March 2022
Original Audit: August 2020(PDF, 4MB)

Data Centers:
Follow-up: March 2022  
Original Audit: September 2020(PDF, 1MB)

Travel Expenses
Follow-up: March 2022
Original Audit: October 2020(PDF, 3MB)

Airport Capital Assets
Follow-up: April 2022
Original Audit: December 2020(PDF, 7MB)

Records Management
Follow-up: April 2022  
Original Audit: May 2021(PDF, 11MB)

Coronavirus Relief Funding
Follow-up: July 2022
Original Audit: July 2021(PDF, 2MB)

Compensation Setting Analysis
Follow-up: August 2022
Original Audit: February 2021(PDF, 2MB)

Denver County Jail Building 24 Buildout Contract
Follow-up: October 2022
Original Audit: June 2021(PDF, 5MB)

Jail Safety
Follow-up: December 2022  
Original Audit: March 2019(PDF, 48MB)

Parks Legacy Plan
Follow-up: December 2022  
Original Audit: October 2021(PDF, 3MB)

AUDIT IMPACTS

Our audit recommendations are intended as tools to help city agencies better serve the people of Denver.

In 2022, our recommendations and findings helped city agencies make Denver an even greater place for people to live, work, and spend time. We appreciate the city leaders who take our work seriously and embrace the spirit of improvement throughout the year.

When city managers take our findings seriously, we all benefit from the improvements. We completed 13 follow-ups in 2022 of reports issued since 2019, including two cybersecurity follow-up reports that did not have public recommendations. Out of the 91 recommendations we made across all those reports, agencies fully implemented only 36. This 40% full implementation rate is nearly the same as 2021.

Some work was out of city leaders’ control because of the pandemic. Limited resources and staff shortages citywide slowed some implementations beyond the agencies’ expected dates for completion. However, these hardships cannot account for all non-implemented recommendations.

For example, although the Clerk and Recorder’s Office did successfully create a measurable and action-oriented strategic plan for records management, there are still specific steps that need to be completed to protect the security of personally identifiable information and historical documents. The Clerk and Recorder’s Office fully implemented six recommendations, partially implemented four, and did not implement seven recommendations, but managers say they still intend to work on the outstanding risks.

Additionally, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment lacked the funding it needed to fully implement one of our recommendations, and the department’s decision to move the syringe access and sharps disposal programs to a different section may have reset some of the progress it made. However, department officials developed a new evaluation plan to collect meaningful data about the programs’ progress and operations, which fulfilled two of our audit’s recommendations.

Before starting on our planned audits related to services for people experiencing homelessness, we followed up on our 2019 audit of the city’s homeless services program. We found significant improvement following that audit, including a new agency and complete strategic plan. Soon after our audit, Denver’s mayor replaced the Denver’s Road Home Division, which was part of Denver Human Services, with the new Department of Housing Stability. The new department started leading efforts to address both housing stability and homelessness resolution in September 2019.

In a follow-up to 2021 audit work, we found the city took a significant step toward ensuring it tracks pay equity among all city employees. The Office of Human Resources made significant progress in encouraging employees to complete their career profiles — a key data collection tool that allows them to track and compare pay factors such as experience, previous work record, education or certification, and level of responsibility.

When our recommendations are implemented, the effects can improve how the city uses its limited resources, leading to better services for the public and better equity and accessibility in city programs.

We conduct audits on behalf of the people of Denver. Their support and the support of city agencies help us make meaningful recommendations that result in real change and improvement.

Leading the Way

The Denver Auditor’s Office is a clear leader in innovative audit technology and techniques. This year, we surveyed more than 100 local government audit organizations across the country, and we reviewed professional literature about audit analytics to assess the current state of methods, tools, and applications to auditing. We hoped to identify areas where we could further enhance how we use analytics to improve our audit work.

The nationwide survey we did for this special analysis showed the Auditor’s Office specifically excels in several areas — including having dedicated audit analytics resources, applying analytics and continuous auditing for general risk assessment and annual planning, and reporting analytical results in a variety of ways.

Our office is generally among the leaders in using audit analytics when compared to our peer organizations in local government auditing, and our analytical techniques are often ahead of the curve of the methods described in recent academic and professional literature.

“Audit analytics” means using automation and new technologies to assess entire datasets and thousands of pieces of information in less time and in more reliable ways than through traditional techniques like random sampling. Using audit analytics improves auditors’ confidence in their conclusions.

Audit analytics differs from simply using audit software to automate more traditional audit tasks. Audit analytics:

• Applies advanced statistics and data science tools.
• Applies expertise to examine large datasets that describe an organization’s transactions and functions.
• Helps identify inefficiencies, fraud, or data-quality problems.
• Helps identify the causes and effects of issues.

Auditor O’Brien launched the office’s audit analytics and continuous auditing program in 2017. The Audit Analytics Team collaborates with our other audit staff to regularly work with large datasets and statistics, while safeguarding secure data.

Audit analytics is increasingly important and expected in both internal and external audit functions at private and public audit firms. As organizations move toward fully digitized financial and business processes, auditors must follow.

As noted in our analysis, there are many computer languages and software programs that auditors can use to analyze data or write scripts — commands that perform a series of tests — to automate the analysis of data. Our auditors have used the computer language Python and software like Arbutus and Tableau to process data.

Using these tools, auditors in Auditor O’Brien’s office can connect to additional data sources, automate advanced analyses, and visualize results. Auditors can have more confidence in the results of these techniques because these new tools can help clean up datasets, confirm the integrity of those datasets, and assess entire populations instead of only relying on sampling.

In 2022, Denver Labor broke records: Our team put more money than ever back into the hands of workers who were not paid according to the law. We passed the $1 million mark for worker restitution in October and kept building on that to close the year with $1.1 million returned. That is money collected from employers and returned to the workers who earned it, not including outstanding or ongoing investigations.

Auditor O’Brien, Denver Labor Executive Director Jeffrey Garcia, and our team of labor analysts work with both businesses and workers to resolve wage compliance issues in ways that work for everyone. We take an education-first approach to wage law compliance and enforcement.

In 2022, members of the team held weekly public trainings in both English and Spanish — and provided other materials online and in person in multiple languages. This allows for an ongoing, inclusive, and accessible dialogue about the city’s processes.

We audit 100% of certified payrolls and investigate 100% of wage complaints.

Our office enforces both minimum wage and prevailing wage laws. In 2022, the minimum wage rate in the City and County of Denver was $15.87 per hour, with few exceptions, and it will increase to $17.29 per hour in 2023.

In 2022, the Denver City Council voted to change the contractor minimum wage so it would increase annually at the same time as the citywide minimum wage. Employers must pay the greatest applicable wage rate for any work performed in the city or on city projects — therefore, the lower contractor minimum wage rate would not apply in Denver.

Transcript of wage rates timeline in dollars per hour(PDF, 69KB)

In November 2019, the Denver City Council created Section 58-16 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code, which sets the local minimum wage for Denver and prescribes the means for setting, enforcing, and complying with the new local minimum wage.

New in 2022, the ordinance allowed our team of analysts to proactively begin investigations of businesses considered to be high risk. We investigated employers in industries and locations such as those along Denver’s boundaries, national brand companies, restaurants, home care services, salons, and valet parking companies.

Common mistakes we identified included businesses claiming the tip credit when they should not, businesses thinking they are outside Denver’s boundary when they are not, and businesses paying a wage based on the employer’s office location instead of where the work was done.

Denver Labor’s goal is to protect Denver’s employers and employees and ensure everyone is paid according to the law.

Our office believes education for both employers and the public is the key to a successful citywide minimum wage ordinance. This year, we continued our live “Wages Wednesday” series on Facebook — in both English and Spanish. We are also in the community to do presentations, raise awareness, and build relationships with community groups.

We offer several useful tools for both employers and employees on our website — including a regional address finder to help determine whether work performed was in the boundaries of the City and County of Denver, a minimum wage and tip calculator, an employer underpayment calculator, a tips tracker for the food and beverage industry, and complaint forms in English and in Spanish.

Here are some examples of how we worked with both employers and employees this year to recover unpaid wages in accordance with the minimum wage ordinance:

Denver Labor Recovers Unpaid Wages for Afghan Refugee
Third parties can submit a wage complaint on behalf of an underpaid worker. In this restitution case, the African Community Center of Denver reached out to Denver Labor because an Afghan refugee the center had helped find employment to perform construction work was being paid below Denver’s citywide minimum wage of $15.87 per hour. When Denver Labor notified the local contractor about the wage investigation, the contractor eagerly worked with our office to resolve the underpayment and returned the unpaid wages in less than one week. The employer also raised the worker’s hourly wage to $16 per hour.

Janitorial Employees Receive More Than $32,000 in Restitution
A janitorial contractor cleaning a college campus in Denver failed to pay employees Denver’s citywide minimum wage for a year and a half. After an employee submitted a complaint to Denver Labor, the contractor increased all employees’ hourly rates to at least meet the minimum wage and 25 janitors received $32,089.27 in restitution.

Valet Parking Company Returns $38,900 to Employees
After identifying valet parking as a high-risk industry for underpayments, Denver Labor conducted a routine compliance audit on a national valet parking company. The company’s payroll records showed it was taking a tip credit for the tips received by its employees — but this is allowed only for businesses in the food and beverage industry to reduce their minimum wage obligation as long as their workers receive that amount in tips. When Denver Labor notified the business that it could not claim a tip credit, the company worked with our team to raise wages and resolve the underpayment. Forty-nine employees received $38,895.97 in restitution.

Thirty-Three Employees Receive $24,900 in Restitution
The Denver Labor team received a minimum wage complaint through our website because a national beauty service retailer was paying its employees less than Denver’s required minimum wage and was also claiming a tip credit. Our minimum wage team educated the employer about the tip credit, which Denver’s citywide minimum wage ordinance allows only for the food and beverage industry. The company corrected the wages for all its employees, and our office recovered $24,875.55 for 33 workers.

Marijuana Dispensary Updates Wages for 13 Employees
Denver Labor received a complaint about a local marijuana dispensary with multiple locations in the metro area. The dispensary was not adjusting wages to comply with Denver’s citywide minimum wage when the work was performed at the Denver location. After educating the employer on how to track hours and update wages for those employees working within the City and County of Denver, our team recovered $398.69 for 13 employees.

A National Retailer on Denver’s Border Returns More Than $25,000 to Employees
A national retailer on the Denver side of the border between Denver and Jefferson counties was paying the state minimum wage rate for two years instead of Denver’s minimum wage. An employee saw a social post from our office and submitted a complaint to initiate an investigation. Upon receiving the notice of investigation and an information request from our office, the employer performed a self-audit and paid a restitution of $25,268.47 for 45 employees. This case illustrates how some national companies with a human resources office outside Colorado may be unaware of local minimum wage laws and incidentally underpay their workers in the City and County of Denver.

Read more successful restitution stories for Denver Labor on our website.

By revamping the city’s prevailing wage ordinance in 2016, Auditor O’Brien changed the way Denver does business on all projects and changed how work is performed on city property. Now, his growing team works to bring all parties together to make Denver a good, efficient place to work. The Auditor’s prevailing wage team works with both contractors and workers on all Denver projects to ensure compliance and payment according to the law.

We have enforced prevailing wage requirements in Denver since the 1950s. Contractors and subcontractors doing work at or in connection with the operation of any public building or doing public work on behalf of the City and County of Denver must pay their workers the prevailing wage.

Prevailing wage is required on contracts of $2,000 or more for construction, improvement, repair, maintenance, demolition, or janitorial work. Through education, outreach, and investigation, our prevailing wage team works with both employers and employees. Our work helps support businesses in compliance with the law and we strive to put city funds into the hands of contractors and workers as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Wage reporting software, easy to-use tutorial videos, and public question-and-answer sessions all help streamline the process. Our analysts work with employers to ensure employees are classified correctly, and we also work with employers to guide them through the reporting process. We can accommodate training and event requests in English and Spanish, both virtually and in person. 

Here are some examples of how we worked with both employers and employees this year to recover unpaid wages in accordance with the prevailing wage ordinance:

Denver Labor Recovers More Than $207,000 for Waste Services Employees
Employees working on trash removal services and disposal-site contracts received $207,428.94 in restitution. The prevailing wage team found the workers were classified correctly but the contractor failed to meet prevailing wage requirements by claiming fringe credit that had not been approved by our office. Fringes are guaranteed benefits that an employer provides for the employees’ health and welfare, such as health insurance, paid time off, or a 401(k). For it to count toward their prevailing wage requirements, contractors must translate these benefits into an hourly fringe credit, which must be approved by our prevailing wage analysts. Denver Labor worked cooperatively with the contractor to obtain accurate documentation, approve fringes retroactively, and calculate the restitution for 35 employees.

Apprentice Receives $2,654 in Restitution for Prevailing Wage Work
Denver’s prevailing wage ordinance requires all apprentices to be enrolled in an apprenticeship program registered with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Apprentice Training. A team member in our prevailing wage division found that a city contractor classified and paid an employee as an apprentice for three months before registering them in an approved apprenticeship program. Until the employee received the required apprentice certificate, the employee should have been classified and paid as a journey worker for all work performed on the prevailing wage project. After identifying the issue, Denver Labor helped recover $2,653.68 in restitution for the employee. The prevailing wage team prioritizes educating employers about the law and workers about their rights. Sometimes mistakes still happen and workers get paid less than what’s required. Every dollar matters to Denver’s workers and every case matters to Denver Labor. Read dozens more restitution stories on our website. 

Every dollar matters to Denver’s workers and every case matters to Denver Labor. Read more successful restitution stories for Denver Labor on our website.

ARE YOU OWED MONEY?
If you were underpaid at work, our office might have a restitution check waiting for you. Check for your name on our website.

Our team offers many types of resources to support Denver’s businesses, including tools on our website, work site posters, pamphlets and educational materials, training opportunities, and one-on-one availability with our analysts.

We know underpayments are most commonly the result of honest mistakes, not intentional wrongdoing. As a result, we strive to prioritize education — and when we find businesses owe significant restitution, we work cooperatively to find solutions to help managers pay their employees while keeping their businesses going.

On our website, employers can find tools like a map of Denver where employers can see whether the citywide minimum wage applies to their employees, a restitution calculator spreadsheet, and prevailing wage rates for each job classification. When we conduct minimum wage investigations, we:

• Receive a complaint or begin a proactive enforcement investigation.
• Assess the complaint to ensure it meets initial investigation requirements.
• Contact the employer to request employee, payroll, and compliance documentation.
• Evaluate the complaint to consider all information provided by any complainant and the employer.
• Determine underpayment and fines, and inform both parties of any restitution that might be required.
• Resolve the complaint.

Once the employer provides evidence of a completed restitution payment, the case is closed. If no restitution was required, the case will be closed. When there is not sufficient evidence, the case is referred to another agency for investigation or to an outside firm for collection of restitution.

Under the minimum wage ordinance, employers are required to keep payroll documentation for three years for all past and current workers. The documentation should include the number of hours worked, the hourly wage paid to each worker, any deductions made from worker wages including taxes, and the net amount of wages each worker receives. Our office’s active enforcement approach to launching a minimum wage investigation can include on-site visits to speak with at-risk workers. Criteria that could trigger active enforcement include:

• Prior violations by a business owner.
• A pattern of noncompliance within an industry.
• Credible information from a state or federal agency.
• Data indicating an employer is likely violating the minimum wage law.

Employers may reduce their minimum wage obligation up to $3.02 per hour if they are in the food and beverage industry and their employees receive that amount in tips. Employers must keep documentation showing employees received at least that amount in tips to claim the full tip credit. Employers of unemancipated minors performing work as part of a certified youth employment program can pay those minors 15% less than the minimum wage.

Employers on prevailing wage projects in the City and County of Denver are required to submit their certified payrolls every two weeks in the LCPtracker system. Our analysts audit 100% of payrolls. Current wage determinations for all classifications are available on our website. We also offer tutorial videos and an LCPtracker setup form on our website to help contractors get started on each project.

We encourage any employer who is unsure about how to stay compliant with the law to let us know. Call or email our team, and our analysts are happy to help.

Our teams use the highest standards on every audit assignment and wage investigation. On every audit, each Audit Services team works to provide in-depth analysis of city systems, programs, and processes. We work to achieve our annual Audit Plan goals using comprehensive risk assessments, with an emphasis on social equity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Our wage analysts work with employers and employees to find cooperative solutions using creative problem solving and detailed examinations of payrolls. Read more about the excellent work this team accomplished in our Denver Labor Wages Report section. Both divisions of the office are leaders in the nation for their work.

Auditor O’Brien is a certified public accountant with more than 40 years of auditing experience. He recognizes the importance of professional development, of continuous learning throughout a career, and of serving the community in the office and beyond. Auditor’s Office team members met high standards again this year through continued professional learning and achievements, industry conferences, staff presentations, involvement in professional organizations, and community contributions.

This year Auditor O’Brien accepted an appointment to the U.S. Comptroller General’s Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards where he can share his expertise and help shape future auditing standards for auditors across the country. The advisory council gives input for updates to the standards also known as the “Yellow Book.” Denver’s Auditor is required by city charter to follow these standards. The Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards include “requirements for audit reports, professional qualifications for auditors, and audit organization quality control. Auditors of federal, state, and local government programs use these standards to perform their audits and produce their reports.”

 Auditor O’Brien also gratefully accepted recognition from the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum for his years of contributions to leadership in government. The national organization awarded the David M. Walker Excellence in Government Accountability Award to three recipients — one at the federal level, one at the state level, and Auditor O’Brien representing the local level of government auditors. According to the organization, winners of the award must have demonstrated leadership to improve government performance and accountability, implemented innovative techniques to create a positive future for government and the audit profession, and adhered to the core values of collaboration, professionalism, and integrity.

Audit Services, under the leadership of Auditor O’Brien and Deputy Auditor Valerie Walling, completed impactful, substantive work on behalf of the people of Denver. Our office integrated the auditing specialties and experience of all our auditors, along with Audit Director Dawn Wiseman, to ensure the quality and impact of our work. We completed performance, financial, information technology, data analytics, and compliance audit work.

In 2022, we were proud to pass our required peer review. This periodic review by auditors from other local governments ensures our work holds up and aligns with the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards. Peer reviewers look at our reports, evidence, independence, training, and policies to confirm that our work is the best it can be. Because of this, members of the public can be assured that our audit reports are trustworthy and of the highest professional quality.

This year, we were also proud to accept another national Knighton Distinguished Award from the Association of Local Government Auditors, making our audit of Denver’s airport parking shuttle system one of the best local government audits in the country. This is the fifth Knighton award for Auditor O’Brien’s administration. While we perform our work on behalf of everyone who cares about Denver — not just to win awards — national recognition from our peers validates our methods, professionalism, and results.

The prestigious Knighton awards recognize the best work from local government auditing offices each year. Top award winners have demonstrated to the judges that their work had a potential for significant impact in the community; that the audit has persuasive, logical, and firmly supported conclusions; that report recommendations will make government programs more efficient and effective; and that the report uses clear and concise communication. Winners of the award must also show they use appropriate research methods and tools and that they are responsive to the needs and concerns of decisionmakers and the public.

The audit team earned recognition for this award-winning audit through their intensive efforts, including Audit Manager Sonia Montano, Audit Manager Vilma Balnyte, Audit Manager Shaun Wysong, Audit Analytics Manager Chris Wilson, and Lead Auditor Rhianna Hruska. Audit Director Dawn Wiseman oversaw the project. Our office had three members who volunteered to serve on a governing committee and participate in leadership roles with the Association of Local Government Auditors. Audit Director Dawn Wiseman was chairperson of the Professional Issues Committee, Audit Manager Karole Dachelet served on the Awards Committee, and Reporting Specialist Kristen Clark served as the communications liaison for the association. Members of our auditing division participated in professional conferences to further their education and expertise.

Members of the audit teams also presented at national and local conferences, including Dr. Samuel Gallaher (who was previously an audit analytics manager) and current Audit Analytics Manager Chris Wilson who presented at the Rocky Mountain Area Conference on their use of data analytics to test controls and measure effectiveness in city systems. Additionally, Reporting Specialist Kristen Clark presented a four-hour workshop at the 2022 ALGA Annual Conference to teach other local government auditors about writing audit reports in clear, plain language.

The Audit Analytics team also shared their experience and knowledge of continuous auditing with an internal auditor who works with the City of St. Petersburg, Florida. Specifically, the team shared tips on how to document code, automate analysis, and report results. In addition, they shared ideas on how to build analytics specific to purchase cards. This included an explanation of the logic behind the code and the specific area of risk each analytic is intended to catch.

Our auditors’ expertise and knowledge are valuable to auditors across Colorado, the United States, and internationally, and we are happy to share our experience with our peers and support the progress of government auditing. Our data analytics and continuous auditing techniques are some of the most advanced in the country, and we are proud to continue to develop more efficient ways to monitor city risks. 

Our staff comprises many talented, well-educated, and hard-working people. Our team continues to work to improve their work, themselves, our office, and our industry.

Deputy Auditor Valerie Walling served as a member of the Jefferson County Audit Committee and as a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Denver board. And Denver Labor Executive Director Jeffrey Garcia was recognized as 2022 Wage Justice Champion by Towards Justice for his work to get the money workers are owed according to the law back into the hands of the workers who earned it.

Further demonstrating the value our office places on continued development for our staff: Information Systems Senior Auditor Robert D. Farol Jr. became a certified information systems auditor, or CISA, and Reporting Specialist Kristen Clark completed her studies to earn a Plain Language Certificate from Simon Fraser University.

Our Safety Committee helped keep members of our office safe and healthy this year with the leadership and support of committee members Kharis Eppstein, Edyie Thompson, Rafael Gongón, Tyson Faussone, Vilma Balnyte, Nicholas Jimroglou, Isabelle Puppa, and Daniel Summers.

Our New Employee Onboarding Committee worked this year to welcome new employees into a hybrid virtual work environment. Committee members included Edyie Thompson, Amy Overzet, Emily Owens Gerber, Kharis Eppstein, Cyndi Lubrano, Valerie Walling, Tayler Overschmidt, Kristin McCormack, Nick Jimroglou, Dawn Wiseman, and Ranea Taylor.

Our Social Events Committee kept our office connected in our hybrid work environment by organizing opportunities for virtual and in-person gatherings. Finding ways to maintain positive relationships and a strong team was more important than ever this year. Thanks to committee members Cyndi Lubrano, Rafael Gongón, Kristin McCormack, Sara del Valle Ruiz, Daniel Emirkhanian, and Shaun Wysong for your fun ideas and organization!

Learn more about staff here

Office of the Auditor

The mission of the Auditor’s Office is to deliver independent, transparent, and professional oversight to safeguard and improve the public’s investment in Denver. Our work is performed on behalf of everyone who cares about the city, including its residents, workers, and decision-makers.

Denver’s Auditor is unique because Auditor Timothy M. O’Brien, CPA, was elected by the people and is independent from all other citywide elected officials and city operational management. He works independently from Mayor Hancock’s office and the City Council to maintain objectivity and to offer frank, truthful reports for the betterment of Denver. Auditor O’Brien was elected to a four-year term in 2015 and re-elected for a second term in 2019.

The Denver Charter provides for the Auditor to conduct:

• Financial and performance audits of the City and County of Denver and its departments and agencies in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards;
• Audits of individual financial transactions, contracts and franchises of the City and County; and
• Audits of the financial accounting systems and procedures administered by the Manager of Finance and other departments and agencies of the City and County, including records systems, revenue identification and accounting, and payment practices.

The Denver Charter mandates the Auditor follow the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards published by the U.S. Comptroller General, as well as financial management best practices and any applicable laws and regulations governing the financial practices of Denver. Under the Auditor’s direction, Audit Services performs risk-based performance, financial, information technology, and contract compliance audits that deliver value and impact for Denver and conform to the highest professional standards.

Denver’s charter further requires Auditor O’Brien to countersign all city contracts to ensure no liability is incurred, no money is disbursed, and no city property is disposed of in a manner contrary to law as it relates to audit access.

Denver Labor, a division of the Auditor’s Office, promotes lawful employment and wage compliance while providing exceptional labor, wage, and hourly enforcement. Our goal is to protect Denver’s employers and employees through education and by ensuring everyone is paid according to the law.

That means Auditor O’Brien and his team work with both employers and employees to ensure every worker is paid according to the law. The office does outreach and works individually with contractors and business owners to help them understand these laws. Our analysts also help identify correct worker prevailing wage classifications. The office’s Denver Labor division oversees education and enforcement of the citywide minimum wage law.

The Auditor is chairman of the Audit Committee, whose primary task is to annually commission an independent external audit of Denver’s financial statements. In addition, results of audits produced by Audit Services are presented to the Audit Committee. To ensure the committee’s independence, the mayor, members of the Denver City Council, and Auditor O’Brien each appoint two members to four-year terms.

Auditor O’Brien is licensed in Colorado as a certified public accountant, or CPA. He also has a master’s in business administration from the University of Colorado. He is a chartered financial analyst and chartered global management accountant. He has more than 40 years of auditing and accounting experience — including 11 years serving as the state auditor — which he uses to ensure Denver taxpayers’ dollars are used efficiently and effectively. 

The Audit Services Division produces independent financial and performance audits and other types of assessments of city agencies, programs, finances, technology, grants, and contracts. The resulting recommendations from these efforts help strengthen governance, improve performance, enhance efficiency, increase revenues, reduce costs and risks, and improve the quality of services for Denver.

Performance audits review the efficiency and effectiveness of agencies’ work, as well as the overall use of Denver tax dollars. Financial audits take a close look at an agency’s records and processes, including specific grant programs’ oversight and compliance — to identify errors in reporting and payments and other risks to the city and its reputation. Contract compliance audits determine whether a third-party vendor and city agencies are following the terms of a contract. Information technology audits and cybersecurity assessments review the controls and operations of the city’s network, software applications, and cybersecurity processes to make sure they are working correctly.

Key audits we completed this year included looking at the insufficient oversight of contracts at Denver International Airport. We found the airport allows some concessionaires to bypass the competitive selection process. Its complex incentive program cost the airport significant amounts of money without any proven benefit. Additionally, some contracts expired years ago while the businesses continued to operate their airport locations. This audit had immediate impact as airport officials promptly began work to discontinue the existing concessions incentive program.

We also looked at the strategies in Denver’s jails to help support mental health and keep people with a history of mental health conditions from cycling back through the system over and over. With a strategic plan, the city could take a more holistic approach for ensuring equity and the quality of care in jails. Additionally, our audit of the city’s trash, recycling, and compost program impacted residents in every neighborhood of Denver. We called attention to understaffing and aging resources ahead of the 2023 expansion of services under the volume-based, or “pay as you throw,” pricing model.

Addressing these areas of concern right away would make the city better prepared for waste collection changes that will impact 180,000 households in the year ahead.

Meanwhile, we completed more cybersecurity assessments to help city agencies strengthen their protections against hackers. And we conducted other contract compliance and construction audits to help track how taxpayer dollars are used by third parties, and we again found a need for better oversight from the city.

We perform a follow-up assessment after the last implementation date given by agencies in response to recommendations in each audit. The follow-up reports confirm whether the agreed-upon recommendations were in fact implemented. We follow up on every audit to see whether our findings of important risks are effectively addressed and providing constructive impact.

Our continuous auditing and data analytics programs help identify high risk areas of the city by repeatedly performing updated analyses of transactional data from different city databases. Using automation, we sort through thousands of data entries, rather than rely only on a random sample. This helps inform our risk assessments for current or future audits and can help us focus on areas of higher concern. The resulting reports provide us with timely feedback of anomalies or outliers in the city’s processes and transactions.

Our annual Audit Plan — which includes many different types of engagements intended to address key risks to the city — is compiled based on risk assessments of city agencies, finances, and operations; input from community members; information from city leaders; current events; regulatory changes; and other factors. You can read all our 2022 audit reports and the 2023 Audit Plan on DenverGov.org/Auditor.

Auditor O’Brien is the chairman of the independent Audit Committee, which meets monthly. The other six members of the committee are appointed to staggered fouryear terms. The members and their appointing authorities are listed below. Members are appointed based on their education or experience in accounting, auditing, financial management, or related fields.

The primary responsibility of the Audit Committee is to commission an annual independent external audit of the city’s finances, and review the results of the annual external audits. In addition to audits of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the single audit report of major grant programs, external audit firms audit Denver International Airport and the Wastewater Management Enterprise Fund, which are city enterprises. An external firm also audits the Deferred Compensation Plan Trust Fund.

The Audit Committee also receives the results of audits, assessments, and examinations performed or commissioned by Audit Services, a division of the Auditor’s Office. All audit reports and committee meeting minutes are published, and committee meetings are televised on Denver 8 TV.

Audit Committee Members

• Rudolfo (Rudy) Payan, Vice-Chairman (appointed by Auditor O’Brien)
• Jack Blumenthal (appointed by Auditor O’Brien)
• Leslie Mitchell (appointed by City Council)
• Florine Nath (appointed by City Council)
• Charles Scheibe (appointed by Mayor Hancock)
• Edward Scholz (appointed by Mayor Hancock)

The City and County of Denver enters into thousands of contracts every year. The Denver Charter mandates Auditor O’Brien review and sign every city contract to ensure any liability incurred, any money disbursed, or any property disposed of is done so according to the law as it relates to audit access.

Auditor O’Brien believes progress in the city should not be held up by processes and paperwork. As a result, he works to get contracts signed quickly while still ensuring a thorough review.

Denver contracts can range from low-dollar agreements to multimillion-dollar technology purchases or construction projects. The Auditor’s Office continues to perform contract compliance, financial and specialty audits, evaluations, and assessments to monitor the city’s oversight of these contracts. Auditor O’Brien believes the city has a responsibility to keep a close watch on contracts to ensure third parties uphold their agreements and spend taxpayer dollars as promised.

In our office, we continuously explore new ways to reach members of the community where they are and in ways that matter to them. We work with community groups, registered neighborhood organizations, businesses, and other organizations to spread the word about what we do. You can reach us at your convenience by signing up for our monthly newsletter or visiting us on our website, Nextdoor, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

The Denver Auditor and his communications team believe in transparency and accountability in local government. As a check and balance on the “strong mayor system,” we work on behalf of the public to make sure residents know what is happening in the city.

We continue to emphasize equitable access to our work by offering material in multiple languages, conducting live trainings in English and Spanish, using plain language in our audit reports, and focusing on accessibility tools for our website and reports. 

The Auditor’s community outreach efforts ensure the important work of the office is more widely known and understood. We post unique content on different platforms about community events, important city updates, audit information, labor and wage developments, and other key communications.

The Auditor also continues to emphasize visual media and outreach through an ongoing initiative to bring information about auditing and wage enforcement to YouTube and local television through Denver 8 TV. Don’t miss our monthly broadcasts of episodes of “Ask the Auditor” and our live “Wages Wednesday” training sessions on Facebook.

Through digital, radio, television, newspaper, and community signage projects, we reached hundreds of thousands of people this year with information about the minimum wage. Our English and Spanish outreach targeted neighborhoods across the city and some of the most high-risk industries and locations.

PRIORITIES THIS YEAR

• English and Spanish outreach.
• “Wages Wednesday” live training.
• In-person and virtual community events.
• Authentic and engaging social media updates.
• Language and disability access.
• Accessibility in audit PDFs and other online information tools.

Our multiplatform approach to outreach helps the Auditor’s Office maintain two-way communication with the people we serve. Residents provide valuable information about what is and is not working in the city. And our education and outreach regarding wage law benefits both businesses and some of the most vulnerable workers in the city.

The Auditor always wants to hear from residents. Anyone who cares about Denver may contact our office by phone, by email, on social media, or at community meetings. 

Contact us in English or Spanish by email: Auditor@DenverGov.org and WageComplaints@DenverGov.org.

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@DenverAuditor | @DenverLabor

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