Photo by oddharmonic on Flickr.

The DC Auditor agreed with an article Matt Rumsey posted last month here on Greater Greater Washington, and will begin publicly posting quarterly financial reports from each Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC).

Matt made the suggestion in an article on April 13. He pointed out that ANCs already have to file these reports, and posting them publicly would help citizens or the press detect any wrongdoing, like that from former ANC 5B chair William Shelton.

In a recent letter to the ANCs, DC Auditor Yolanda Branche referred to Matt’s article and said that the auditor will start posting the reports. They will not post any bank account numbers, of course, just the lists of checks and receipts and the account balances.

The linked letter is the one they sent to ANC 3F; that ANC actually already posts the same information online on its own, but most do not.

Ms. Branche and her team deserve our thanks for listening to suggestions like Matt’s and taking simple steps like this to increase transparency.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.