How about when you're talking about $30 million?
It took only a little more missing money than that to usher in the Democratic reform movement of the late 1940s and to send at least one Republican city official to suicide:
After the 1947 election, the Philadelphia City Council appointed a Citizens Committee of Fifteen to find revenue sources to fund a wage increase promised to city employees by Mayor Samuels during the campaign. The committee uncovered serious problems with the city’s finances, prompted by spectacular revelations. On May 22, Robert C. Foss, chief of the Amusement Tax Division in the Office of Receiver of Taxes, hanged himself. He left behind a note, confessing to embezzlement and accusing seven others of similar illegal activity. Later that month, it was reported that the committee had learned that Michael Viola, an aide to the director of supplies and purchases, Charles Grakelow, had embezzled approximately $15,000. The Viola revelations led to the resignation of Grakelow. He would later be indicted for forgery, embezzlement, and falsification of city records. In October, a grand jury charged Fire Marshall George Gallagher and John Judge, the mayor’s licensing clerk, with collecting license fees for the installation of oil burners without legal authority and in areas specifically exempted from such fees. The following January, the grand jury recommended the prosecution of Gallagher and seven assistants for 380 separate cases of extortion. Related investigations revealed more instances of corruption. City Water Bureau employee Thomas Mundell had taken nearly $3,000 in bribes for ignoring the broken water meters of large industrial customers. Chief Magistrate John O’Malley was charged with 644 counts of illegally reducing the fines and jail terms of convicted gamblers. Overall, nearly $40 million in city spending was unaccounted for.
By all means, Mayor Nutter, audit NTI. I, for one, don't care whether you're happy, sad or indifferent to what such an audit means for the Street legacy. I just want to know what happened to our $30 million.