What are the Comptroller's Responsibilities?
The State Comptroller is New York State's chief fiscal officer. The Comptroller is charged with auditing government operations and operating the Statewide Retirement Systems. His responsibilities include:
- Managing the State's assets and issuing General Obligation debt;
- Conducting management and financial audits of State agencies and public benefit corporations;
- Issuing reports on State finances;
- Overseeing the fiscal affairs of local governments, including New York City;
- Reviewing State contracts, payrolls and payments before they are issued;
- Maintaining the State's accounting system and issuing monthly cash financial statements;
- Overseeing the Justice Court and Abandoned Property Programs; and
- Operating the retirement systems for State and local retirees, valued at $140.5 billion as of March 2006. These systems provide services to over 260,000 retirees and their beneficiaries, over 600,000 members, and 2,700 employers who comprise one of the world's largest public pension fund.
OSC monitors, reports on, and coaches other public entities, and works to ensure that governments at all levels are discharging their responsibilities in an efficient, effective, and timely manner.
The OSC was initially established as an appointed office in New York State government in 1797, though its origins date to earliest colonial times. To ensure independence, the Office's leadership was later placed under a Statewide-elected Comptroller, selected separately from the Governor. Only the Attorney General's Office is so similarly structured in New York State government.
OSC has a breadth and scope of responsibility that is without match in the United States. Most notable among its attributes is the placement of the enormous assets of the State and Local Government Retirement Systems under the sole custodianship of the Comptroller and combining the pre- and post-audit functions.