GREEN TEAM

GREEN TEAM

Performance audit

Audit recommendations and Mahoning County Green Team responses:

To promote accountability, the audit said the county health and engineering departments should bill the Green Team for landfill-related services after they have rendered them, rather than being paid annually in advance of completing the work.

The Green Team said it now requires the health department to provide detailed invoices and will reimburse it quarterly for services rendered. Beginning in 2008, the Green team said it would require the engineering department to supply detailed breakdowns of labor and material costs for landfill haul road maintenance.

The Green Team said it would adopt the auditors’ recommendation to reduce the health and engineering department contracts from three years to one year to provide more flexibility in adjusting reimbursement rates as conditions change.

The Green Team said it would adopt the audit’s recommendation to use quantifiable performance measurements to evaluate the effectiveness of its programs.

As recommended by the audit, residents, businesses and school officials will be able to complete surveys, including one to be posted on the Green Team Web site next year, to evaluate the effectiveness of its recycling activities.

The auditors said the Green Team should redesign its Web site, www.greenteam.cc, to include more information on its programs, activities and service levels.

The Green Team said it has already improved its Web site by posting its Mahoning Matters newsletter, events calendar, policy committee meeting dates and recycling opportunity information there, and it intends to add to the Web site a recycling education activity page for educators and children.

Source: Ohio performance audit
and Green Team response letter