The French Market has fully implemented six recommendations made in 2011 but only partially implemented three others.
In the year and a half since the New Orleans inspector general's office issued a critical report about the French Market Corp.'s finances, the agency has corrected most of the problems investigators found, the IG's office said in a follow-up report Wednesday. However, it said, some problems remain.
Tourists stroll through the French Market.
The June 2011 report cited numerous problems with the way the French Market Corp. handled agency credit cards and employee expense reimbursements.
It followed news reports about questionable credit card purchases by the former director of the French Market, Kenneth Ferdinand, who resigned under fire in 2010 because of complaints about his management style and purchases he charged to the agency.
In early 2011, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the French Market Corp. board hired a new director, Frank Pizzolato, but he resigned a few weeks ago.
The earlier IG report made nine recommendations to improve the agency's accounting policies and procedures and reduce the opportunity for waste and abuse. Since then, the new report says, the French Market has fully implemented six of the nine recommendations and partially implemented the other three.
Although the French Market has adopted a written policy on use of credit cards, the new report says, employees in management positions were still allowed to approve their own expense reports. Second, it says, although the agency now requires all employees using credit cards to sign a written policy including a discussion of allowable business expenses, this policy does not state that card users must reimburse the French Market if they still charged improper expenses.
Third, the report says, the agency's written policy states that monthly credit card statements should be paid by the due date to avoid late charges, but the French Market has continued to incur late fees and finance charges.
Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux said his office will conduct a second follow-up investigation at some point to see whether the French Market has corrected the remaining problems.