Forensic Audit Advocacy & Financial Accountability Research

Leigh's forensic-audit work began with a practical accountability problem: residents can be told that the City is 'audited' while still having unanswered questions that an annual financial-statement audit was never designed to investigate. She therefore studied what a forensic investigation or performance-oriented review could examine and reconstructed earlier Independence Council efforts that proposed outside review of the Stay Well Fund, IPL and citywide finances.

The 2022 Council materials she researched proposed examination of internal controls, professional-service contracts, procurement, spending authority, compliance with Charter, ordinance and state law, and whether public assets were adequately safeguarded. One citywide proposal also contemplated reviewing whether any employee, officer or elected official received a separate personal benefit from certain contracts. Those documents gave Leigh a concrete benchmark for comparing a routine audit with the broader accountability review she was advocating.

Her own effort included public education and attempts to move the issue into serious consideration. It did not produce the forensic audit she sought, and the record should state that result rather than exaggerate it. The qualification is the work itself: learning the financial-governance framework, finding prior Council precedent, defining a meaningful scope, asking why previous concerns had not been resolved and continuing to track audit practices and competitive selection of outside auditors.