As reported in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore finance officials are planning to overhaul city policies on grants management, train staff and keep grant records in a centralized database. The action follows a September study that found accounting gaps with regard to grant money that Baltimore received from state, federal and other sources.

Bill E. Harris, of Glen Burnie, was hired this month to serve as the first ever citywide grants management director. . . Harris and his deputy will lead the efforts to write new policies and procedures, using best practices from other large cities.

The goal is improve oversight of the grant application process — including whether the grant’s purpose matches the mayor’s priorities — and better control the receipt of the money and the monitoring of subrecipients, Black said. Doing so will allow the city to better “track, monitor and enforce compliance,” he said. “We’ll know what’s going on at every corner of the city.”

By putting all of the records into an internal database, finance officials also will have access to real time data, Black said.