PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The state agency that oversees spending in the city is calling for the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office to be abolished.
The Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, or PICA, cited the “ongoing and serious operational and financial mismanagement of the sheriff’s office.”
PICA’s recommendation comes after the Committee of Seventy last week detailed what it called a “long history of corruption and mismanagement” in the sheriff’s office. The good-government group said there have been “decades of dysfunction with little hope for progress.”
“Our city deserves better and action must be taken to prevent this cycle of corruption from continuing,” it continued.
A spokesperson for Sheriff Rochelle Bilal told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the Democrat has made “tangible progress and systemic improvements” to “enhance transparency, accountability, and service to the public.”
PICA’s board on Tuesday also voted to recommend the Register of Wills office be eliminated, saying it “reinforces the stereotype of patronage and corruption” in Philadelphia.