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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Is the OIG earning its keep?

The Inquirer has the story. Short version: the OIG says that it saved the city $4.2 million dollars in salaries, pension payments and fines from fired, demoted or suspended employees (the salaries were calculated over two years). Many dismissed employees were not replaced.

Check the story for some examples of the type of corruption the OIG is finding.

As the Inky notes, some people have asked whether the office is really necessary, given that the city already has a Controller and a district attorney fighting corruption. The OIG's yearly allocation is $1.3 million, so we suppose the implication of this report is that the OIG is doing better than breaking even for the city. Of course, this isn't simply a matter of dollars -- you could argue that there's social benefit to having another watchdog sniffing out corruption; you could also argue that duplicated efforts are wasteful regardless of these financial details.

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Every year, city government spends slightly more than $4 billion. Where does all that money come from? More importantly, where does it go? Are we getting the most bang for our tax buck? “It's Our Money” is a joint project between Philadelphia Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation, designed to answer these questions.




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