Op-Ed: New Britain Residents Deserve Better Financial Oversight

By Chris Anderson

For the third year in a row, the City of New Britain’s Finance Department has neglected their obligations to taxpayers by failing to file the annual financial audit on time. Besides routine lateness, the audit findings identified multiple serious material weaknesses in how the Finance Department operates. First, the Finance Department failed to prepare proper and timely bank reconciliations. Second, they made multiple mistakes reporting revenue for capital projects and the Water Department. These errors mean that when elected officials were planning the budget which raised our taxes and water bills, they did so without a true picture of New Britain’s finances. These failures in financial oversight also put the City at greater risk for fraud and default. While we are fortunate the auditors caught these errors, taxpayers can’t rely on outside auditors to make up for bad management.

The blame lies with Mayor Stewart, who oversees all departments. While she may deflect responsibility by citing recent vacancies in the Finance Department, the issues identified predate those vacancies. Mayor Stewart allowed the Finance Department to be late filing their annual audits year after year. She also failed to ensure serious concerns raised by the auditors were corrected. Since Mayor Stewart is quick to take credit for the successes of our departments, she also needs to accept blame for their documented failures.

Mayor Stewart is entrusted with overseeing hundreds of millions in public dollars, and we expect her to keep track of it. New Britain residents deserve better financial oversight.

Editor’s note: Chris Anderson is the New Britain Democratic Party Chair and was the 2023 Democratic candidate for mayor.