It’s getting curiouser and curiouser at the John A. Wilson Building. Some D.C. Council members threatened this week to introduce legislation to compel Mayor Adrian Fenty to provide more details of his recently submitted fiscal 2009 budget proposal. But, it’s the legislature that makes the final decision about the city’s spending plan. So, lawmakers can ignore or create their own details. And while the mayor’s proposal requires close reading, it’s not opaque.

Council members’ uneasiness about the numbers isn’t rooted in the mayor’s budget but in the absence of other information. They’re operating without an audited report on the Fenty administration’s 2007 spending. They aren’t certain about how this 2008 spending stacks up with last year’s, to say nothing of how it compares with the proposal for 2009.

Not to worry. The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for fiscal 2007 will be released in a few days. That document will help put in perspective not only the actual spending that occurred, but also financial management problems that continue to plague the District, some of which permitted the alleged theft of as much as $50 million from the Office of Tax and Revenue.

“BDO Seidman auditors have worked hard. I think you will see one of the most diligent and in-depth reports ever provided,” said a District official, adding that “it will be a road map” for overhauling the system to help prevent future thefts.

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The audit is based on a sampling of records across the government. A guarantee would require a review by auditors of each and every transaction that took place inside the government and following those transactions to their external destinations.

By law, the CAFR was supposed to have been released in January. Seidman sought and received approval to submit it 60 days late. The accounting firm has conducted an intense review of agency spending, sufficiency of financial controls and managers’ compliance with established controls. In addition to its team of government auditors, Seidman used a forensic team. Among the things discovered are two previously unknown revenue accounts, according to District officials.

The drill-down, partially required under federal accounting standards triggered when fraud has occurred, has cost the District an additional $1.3 million. The combined cost for the audit is expected to reach slightly more than $3 million.

Taxpayers can evaluate whether BDO Seidman was worth the money by checking out the “yellow book” and “management report.” These documents will outline internal problems — material weaknesses and deficiencies. If these are significant, and officials predict they will be, then the mayor and Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi will have one year to show substantial improvements or risk the potential of receiving next year a qualified opinion.

That result would spell disaster for the District’s credit rating and ensure the boot for Gandhi.