$1.7MM is pretty much what it costs to hire a CPA firm to perform these kinds of services. And if you think that anyone with access to the city financial system could do this, it might be worth remembering that at one point less than 5 years ago, the city's accounting systems were so bloated and screwed up that there were over 100 individual checking accounts for various city departments held at banks all around the Metro Detroit area -- with no singular point of oversight.
Then add the complex relationships of the city municipal system, the DSWD, the school system, plus different subsets of employees [[both current and former) receiving different gradations of benefits...
Then, throw in all the different bond issues and liens/guarantors...
The report is not worth $1.7MM. It's not like the words are printed onto platinum-bound books of pages made of super-fine goldplating with sprinkles of saffron embedded into the binding.
The $1.7MM is what it costs to pay people to unravel this disastrous mess.
Bookmarks