Officials: Richmond to review, reformat procurement department

The release does not specify whether an internal department or external agency will be conducting the assessment. City officials have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

The announcement comes amid scrutiny of the city’s procurement department and the purchasing card program it oversees.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch previously reported that former city spokesperson Petula Burks’ purchasing card was suspended in July 2023 due to overdue payments and accidental personal use. After The Times-Dispatch raised questions regarding Burks’ use of her card to spend nearly $100,000 at firms connected to her ex-business partner, Burks resigned on July 1.

Burks’ purchasing card was one of five to be suspended since January 2023. The cards assigned to Registrar Keith Balmer and Deputy Registrar Jerry Richardson were revoked in May as the city’s inspector general launched an investigation into alleged financial improprieties in the Office of Elections.

According to the release, the city’s procurement department and its procedures on July 1 were added to “the internal control ... assessment” plan authorized by the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget.

“Chief Administrative Officer ... Lincoln Saunders has directed Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg to begin the ‘Procurement Services Assessment,’” according to Thursday’s release.

On Tuesday, Saunders told WWBT-TV that the city is reformatting the procurement department. Multiple calls from The Times-Dispatch to Saunders and other officials seeking details related to that reformatting have not been returned since Wednesday morning.

An in-depth look at the procurement department is part of the city’s “administrative turnaround,” the release says.

“Three years ago, it became clear that key City offices were vastly understaffed, administrative processes were outdated, and hiring was slow,” according to the release. “Significant vacancies and insufficient staffing hampered the backbone of City operations — the departments of Budget, Finance, Human Resources, IT, and Procurement.”

In response to those issues, Saunders in 2021 launched a multistep plan, including increased staffing through competitive hiring practices and the establishment of internal controls, the release says. As a part of that plan, officials in 2022 restaffed the entire HR department.

Now, the procurement department has been “included” in that process, the release says. It does not mention recent reports on the department’s purchasing card program.

“We continue to execute the plan that we laid out, and it is delivering results for Richmond,” Saunders said in the statement.

A 2019 audit of the purchasing card program conducted by the city auditor noted several vulnerabilities, including a lack of safeguards for certain categories of purchases as well as financial loss caused by unpaid balances.