New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today the following audits have been issued.

Department of Health (DOH): Patient Safety Center Activities and Handling of Revenues (2019-S-15)

DOH has generally met the primary objectives of the Patient Safety Center (PSC) regarding data reporting, collection, and analysis and the dissemination of health care information, including public access to such information. However, auditors found a lack of formal guidance governing certain enforcement and recordkeeping practices. DOH also needs to improve its oversight of PSC revenues and related activities to ensure that the PSC account is receiving all revenue due.

Department of Labor (DOL): Selected Wage Investigation Procedures (2019-S-46)

Auditors reviewed wage investigation activities for a sample of 150 cases opened between April 1, 2016, and Nov. 29, 2019. For 69 of the 150 cases, investigators did not make contact with the employer within 60 days of creating a wage investigation case, as recommended in its procedures. In 55 of the 69 cases, the first contact did not occur for more than 120 days, including 13 cases for which contact didn’t occur until after more than 360 days had passed. Auditors identified 24 cases with no documented investigation activities for significant periods of time, including two cases with gaps of more than two years. For nine of 56 cases reviewed that DOL’s system indicated were closed and paid, auditors could not determine whether the 976 claimants in these cases received recovered wages totaling $413,582.

New York City Department of Education (DOE): Health, Safety, and Accessibility in District 75 Schools (2019-N-7)

DOE could improve its oversight to ensure that children attending some District 75 schools are not exposed to unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Conditions identified included: peeling paint in certain areas, including classrooms; lack of the required supply of epinephrine pens to be used in case of allergic reaction emergencies; disabled door alarms; unsafe conditions on playgrounds; and potentially toxic cleaning materials in unlocked cabinets in classrooms and hallways.

New York City Department of Finance (DOF): Selected Aspects of Collecting Outstanding Amounts Due for Parking Violations (2019-N-2)

Auditors determined that DOF did not maximize collection of fines and fees owed for parking violations, especially for vehicle owners residing outside NYC. The city has large outstanding balances due from summonses for parking violations, and DOF has not always taken timely action to collect the fines and fees.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Capital Construction: All-Agency Contract Evaluation System (2019-S-14)

MTA Capital Construction did not always follow proper procedures when monitoring and evaluating contractor and consultant performance to uniformly obtain and record reliable information on performance. As a result, it did not fully benefit from the established processes. Documentation was not consistently maintained to support projects rated as satisfactory, and, in some cases, either the work performed or the information in the file did not appear to support or contradicted the ratings.

Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD): Compliance With Jonathan’s Law (Follow-Up) (2020-F-26)

An audit issued in November 2019 found OPWDD did not implement processes to effectively monitor whether facilities are complying with Jonathan’s Law, enacted to expand parents’, guardians’, and other qualified persons’ access to records relating to incidents involving family members residing in facilities operated, licensed, or certified by OPWDD and other state agencies. While facilities established practices for notifying qualified persons within the required time frame, 11 percent of the incidents reviewed lacked support that the requisite notification was made within the required time frames and 7 percent lacked support that a report had been issued within the required time frames. Facilities did not always provide records to qualified persons when requested or did not provide them within 21 days of the request or the conclusion of an investigation. In a follow-up, auditors found OPWDD officials made limited progress in addressing the problems identified in the initial audit report.

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