During the first three years of his term as City Controller, Alan Butkovitz has identified over $600 million in savings and potential revenues for the City of Philadelphia.

Butkovitz made an internal management decision from day one to concentrate on more comprehensive performance auditing which expose larger amounts of waste, fraud and mismanagement -- while conducting the departmental audits every two years instead of annually because they are less comprehensive and yield few findings and little savings. 

Since departmental audits primarily serve as tools to deter mismanagement and employee fraud, conducting them once every two years can have the same deterrent effect - but freeing up vital staff time for more fruitful performance auditing.

As a result, Butkovitz tripled the number of annual performance audits from 2 to 7 a year --for a total of 31 special and performance audits during his first three years in office - which have resulted in over $413 million in savings and potential revenues for the City.

To address the budget-crushing pension crisis, Butkovitz developed a long-range plan that will save Philadelphia more than $200 million over the next five years. The Philadelphia Daily News called his plan “innovative” and said it “is a classic example of the kind of market expertise that we need in a controller.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed it as well saying, “On pensions, there was encouraging news . . . when (Mayor) Nutter signed on to Butkovitz's proposal to stretch out the city's pension payments. Harrisburg lawmakers should give the required thumbs-up."

Below is a list of accomplishments by Controller Alan Butkovitz during his first three years in office: 

*   Identified over $400 million in savings and new revenue by eliminating waste and mismanagement in city government and increasing the revenue collections from insurance companies and long-outstanding delinquencies. (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=365)

*   Developed a long-range plan to protect employee pensions and save the city another $350 million.  (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=386)

*     Conducted an audit that found Philadelphia's Emergency Medical Service units were late 40% of the time, and made recommendations to improve response time, and generate $46 million a year by having the city accurately bill insurance companies for all EMS runs. (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=253)

*      Exposed former School District Superintendent Paul Vallas' attempt to hide a $200 million deficit and forced the School District to get its financial house in order and balance its yearly budget. 

*      Continued opposition to the Bureau of Revision and Taxes planned citywide full-value reassessment of all residential properties in Philadelphia because it will dramatically increase real estate taxes for thousands of homeowners. (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=91) (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=127

*       Uncovered serious deficiencies at City Health Centers including the distribution of expired prescription drugs by clinic employees and patients waiting months for appointments. (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=347)

*     Led the fight to divest the City's pension fund (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=120) from companies doing business with the Sudanese government because of its history of genocide against its own people in the Darfur region.  (http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=396). He also joined with progressive allies on Philadelphia City Council to pass a resolution calling for divestment.  (http://webapps.phila.gov/council/detailreport/?key=6221)

*    Conducted a comprehensive examination of obstacles hindering minority participation in city contracts and recommended concrete measures to eliminate barriers that deny full participation by minority, women and disabled-owned businesses in city work and contracts. (MBEC Press Conference:  http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=297), (MBEC Report:  http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=225), (Testimony:  http://www.philadelphiacontroller.org/page.asp?id=299)