City to Get Help in Financial Management Transition

Pittsburgh's financial oversight board has hired an accountant to review all of the city’s open accounts. The analysis is in preparation for Pittsburgh joining Allegheny County’s computerized fiscal management system.

The Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority says Pittsburgh-based firm Gleason & Associates will work with city government to smooth the financial transition.

The firm will likely close out several inactive or empty accounts, and ICA Executive Director Henry Sciortino says Gleason may even find some extra money in old projects that went under-budget. The accounts range from those opened in the current administration to funds earmarked decades ago.

Sciortino says the firm will also examine both the capital budget and the operating budget to help the city understand its current standing.

But Sciortino says the real goal of the project is to make sure all of Pittsburgh’s finances are ready for the conversion by the end of the summer.

“In that conversion, we want the city to be able to go through all of its accounts, and then match up with the accounts in a way that they fit into the County system,” says Sciortino.

Gleason & Associates was hired in a $35,000 contract that was paid for by the ICA. Sciortino says the financial review will probably take four to six weeks to finish.