Forensic Audit Advocacy & Financial Accountability Research

Leigh's audit work grew from a basic accountability question: when residents are concerned about how public money has been managed, what type of review is capable of answering questions a normal annual financial-statement audit is not designed to answer? She researched prior Independence Council proposals for third-party forensic work, including a 2022 proposal for a citywide forensic investigation/audit of fiscal, budgetary and procurement policies and a separate proposal concerning Independence Power & Light. Those proposals themselves identified issues such as internal controls, professional-service contracts, spending authority, procurement practices and compliance with Charter, ordinance and state law.

Leigh then used that history in her own citizen advocacy and public-information work, arguing for meaningful independent review rather than treating the existence of a routine audit as the end of the accountability question. Her effort did not result in the forensic audit she sought, and the record should say that plainly. The work nevertheless belongs here because it required learning the difference between audit types, tracing prior Council action, reviewing financial-governance records and trying to move an accountability proposal from concern to action.