Employees in Mayor Brandon Scott’s office did not go through a required process to approve purchases of food, flowers and other items for office celebrations and sporting events, according to a report from Baltimore’s Office of the Inspector General.

About 200 people in the office have “P-cards,” or procurement cards, which are used by city employees to make purchases with city funds. The city has spent a total of $36 million in P-card transactions since June 2022, of which $167,455 was out of compliance, the report says.

The report, which was released to the public Wednesday, says employees in the mayor’s office did not submit waivers for approval for 336 transactions between July 1, 2022, and Nov. 17, 2025.

City policy states that “certain items, such as food and flowers, cannot be purchased” without approval from the Bureau of Procurement, according to the report.

In a published response, John David “J.D.” Merrill, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the OIG report lacks “important context” and includes characterizations that “overstate materiality” or “reflect areas of reasonable disagreement.”

The response also “highlights the fact that the Inspector General found no deliberate misuse of P-cards” and affirms that members of the mayor’s office mentioned in the report were acting in good faith, mayor’s office spokesperson Jonas Poggi said via email.

The OIG said the majority of the transactions were for food and catering. Many of the expenditures were for “birthday celebrations, employee appreciations, baby showers” and flowers for people within the office, according to the report.

About $52,588 of purchases were made during Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens games in each stadium’s mayoral suite, the OIG reported, adding that this may have been common practice for mayoral offices in the past.

P-card manuals state that the funds “should not be used for retirement parties, holiday parties, or employee appreciation events,” according to the inspector general. But the report says the Bureau of Procurement has approved purchases for some of the mayor’s office’s staff appreciation events. When the Bureau of Procurement denied waivers in 2023, the OIG said, the procurement office told P-card holders to ask Department of Finance Director Michael Mocksten for approval.

As a result of its investigation, the OIG recommended the city bring on additional people and resources to oversee P-card transactions.

The report dropped amid rising tensions between the mayor’s office and the OIG. Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming sued the city this week, accusing officials of not allowing her office to access records for an investigation. In a statement, the mayor’s office said it would not comment on the lawsuit but is committed to being transparent to an inspector general’s office that complies with the law.

The inspector general and Scott’s administration have been battling over access to city records since the beginning of the year.