The Fairfax County Office of Financial and Program Audit’s fiscal 2025 study plan calls for reviews of purchase-card spending, the county’s volunteer management, emergency-transport billings, energy usage and project reimbursements.
The plan, outlined by Jennifer Girard, performance auditor to the board, at the Board of Supervisors’ June 18 Audit Committee meeting, calls for:
• A review of purchase cards (“p-cards”), on which county staff spend about $19 million per year. The study, to be conducted between July and September, will attempt to determine if the p-card purchase align with the county’s policies, if the cards are being misused and whether continuously monitoring their usage should be incorporated into the county’s financial procedures.
• A study, to be undertaken between October and December, that will explore whether the more than 51,000 people in the Fairfax Volunteer Management System are being utilized fully and potentially saving taxpayers’ money.
• An inquiry, also between October and December, into whether the county’s 500-plus facilities are making sufficient progress in reducing energy use and whether low-cost technological options could help toward that end.
Between January and March 2025, the office will conduct:
• A follow-up study on the Northern Virginia Mutual Aid Agreement, in which Fairfax County and other local jurisdictions lend each other emergency support. The initial study evaluated insurance-billing improvements for emergency services to non-county residents and found there were $7.9 million worth of non-billed ground transports for such people between fiscal 2017 and 2021.
• A related follow-up study on EMS [emergency medical services] provided to county residents. The initial study’s report found $14 million worth of non-billed ground transports for county residents in fiscal years 2017 through 2021.
In fiscal 2025’s fourth quarter, between April and June, the office will undertake the first part of a series of studies on funding reimbursements to determine whether Fairfax County fully is recovering funds from outside sources on approved projects.
This study, slated to be finished in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, will evaluate whether the county’s reimbursement requests to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) have been covered in timely fashion.
NVTA has allocated $781 million to Fairfax County regarding 15 projects.
The Board of Supervisors’ Audit Committee is chaired by Supervisor Daniel Storck (D-Mount Vernon) and includes Supervisors Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville), Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) and Andres Jimenez (D-Mason) and citizen members Lester Myers and Paul Svab.
Because the committee does not consist of the entire Board of Supervisors, its meetings are neither broadcast on the county’s Channel 16 nor archived on its Website, county officials said.
