Government

DC Auditor listens, will post ANC financial reports online

by David Alpert   •   May 4, 2012 12:53 pm

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).

Photo by oddharmonic on Flickr.

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 is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.