The city of New Orleans has major issues when it comes to paying contractors, according to a report released Friday morning by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.It comes after a story in February from WDSU Investigates, which showed that the city has issues getting payments to contractors in a timely manner.The audit by the state was requested by Helena Moreno, the New Orleans City Council president. The city cannot accurately determine how long it takes to pay vendors, the audit found. The accounts payable department can delete unprocessed invoices, which limits the city's ability to determine overall timeliness.The contracting and purchase order delays prevent vendors from submitting invoices, which leads to payment delays. The city also does not track the timeliness of its contract and purchase order processes.Moreno says this process must improve as it's slowing progress and preventing contractors from bidding on work."When we have an issue paying vendors, it means we have more people that do not want to serve or do business with the city of New Orleans, which then means when we put certain work out to be that only certain companies that charge us more money bud — so it's an issue of costing a lot more," Moreno said. The city sent in a lengthy response to the legislative auditor's finding, admitting to some and pointing out efforts to fix many of the problems.ORIGINAL REPORT:Contractors are not being paid for their work by the city of New Orleans.That's what one city council member claims is happening, and this elected leader says it's causing issues with people bidding on jobs across the city.The Cantrell administration says these allegations are off-base.WDSU Investigates obtained the list.On it, there are over 300 columns containing the names of dozens of businesses all owed money by the city for work that's been completed, coming in at over $2 million.This is the list of city contractors whose bills were more than 30 days old past due, as of last month."I'll say this: It's such a problem that we are hearing from vendors, for some time now, that they don't want to do business with the city of New Orleans," Helena Moreno, New Orleans City Council president, said.The list contains everything from large corporations down to small mom-and-pop operations.Some are owed hundreds of thousands for major capital projects, while others are owed just a few dollars for things like coffee delivery and towing.And this isn't the only list — there's another one with unpaid bills due in the last 30 days.The dollars amount there to just under $5 million."That makes it really problematic for us, because if we are putting out RFPs, for example, for a large project and we have large reputable firms that no longer want to do business with New Orleans — that means we will have a limited choice with who does want to do business with the city. And that means, more than likely to make it worth their while, they are going to jack up their prices, and we are going to pay more for some of these projects," Moreno said.Case in point, the Department of Public Works recently tried to bid a $500,000 project using federal funds to address a backlog of speeding complaints.No one bid on it."Is that a reflection of contractors don't get paid on time?" WDSU's Travers Mackel asked. "Yes. Yes, no doubt — that's exactly what I'm hearing," Mackel said.WDSU Investigates started calling dozens of contractors listed, many confirming they are owed money but didn't want to talk on-cam — or even on the record — for fear of retaliation and never getting paid."Is that unfortunate when businesses feel they are in a position where they can't speak out or they won't get paid?" Mackel asked."No, I hear that all the time, and that's why they come to council members," Moreno said.So we went straight to the city's chief financial officer."Does the city pay contractors or stiff contractors on work?" Mackel asked."I think that is a misconception, and I hear that constantly," Gilbert Montano, New Orleans chief administrative officer, said.Montano says the devil is in the details when it comes to change orders on jobs.He says 99% of contractors get paid on time unless there is a change order and that leads to issues. His team is addressing those in real-time and working on solutions.Regardless, Moreno and the city council have asked the Louisiana Legislative Auditor to get involved."To come in and figure out what the heck is happening with our finance department and why people can't get paid on time," Moreno said.Montano says the administration welcomes that audit, which could be completed in the next few weeks.The New Orleans City Council issued the following statement regarding the report: "The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a report today that demonstrates significant issues leading the City of New Orleans to pay invoices months late and sometimes taking more than a year. This is a critical flaw because as the report says: “Not paying vendors timely can result in fewer vendors that choose to conduct business with the City and bid on City projects, potentially affecting the quality, timeliness, and price of goods and services.”"The report is the result of a request by Council President Helena Moreno, supported by the full Council, to bring in the Louisiana Legislative Auditor to evaluate late payments after she and other councilmembers received countless complaints from vendors."The legislative auditor determined several findings:1. The City cannot accurately determine how long it takes to pay invoices.2. Invoices can and sometimes are deleted, but there is no tracking of deleted invoices.3. Contracting and purchase order delays prevent vendors from being able to submit invoices.4. There is a lack of information and communication to vendors and City departments to ensure understanding of contracting, invoicing and the budgeting system called BRASS.“Some of the findings are truly shocking; it’s a multi-tiered failure. Ultimately, it’s the people of the city who suffer most because work and projects are then delayed, and we’re already learning of vendors who do not want to work with the City anymore because of delayed payments, which means those who are still willing, will cost taxpayers more,” said Council President Helena Moreno. “The silver lining is that, ever since I brought in the Legislative Auditor, the Administration began to make improvements and have committed to work through the recommendations in this report. This also sets the road map for the next Administration to come in and fix this issue for good. I appreciate the hard work of Auditor Mike Waguespack and his team on this useful report and assistance in finding solutions.”