Audit Report on Fire Department Controls over the Inspection of Fire Alarm Systems

Audit Report In Brief

This audit determined whether the Fire Alarm Inspection Unit (Alarm Unit) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) has adequate controls over the inspection of fire alarm systems to ensure that requests for inspections and results of inspections are properly recorded and reported, and that the inspections are performed in a timely manner.  FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Prevention (the Bureau) is responsible for protecting occupied residential and commercial properties throughout New York City by enforcing local laws and regulations pertaining to fire protection.  One of the Bureau’s fire prevention activities is to conduct inspections of fire alarm systems at those properties.  The Alarm Unit reported that it conducted a total of 5,601 fire alarm system inspections in Fiscal Year 2006, with an average of 467 inspections per month.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Alarm Unit of FDNY does not adequately ensure that requests for inspections of fire alarm systems and the results of inspections are properly recorded and reported, and that the inspections are performed in a timely manner to ensure that safety-related issues are identified and resolved. It should be noted that an audit conducted by our office more than 10 years ago identified some of the same findings. The major findings are as follows:

• The Alarm Unit has not developed formal procedures to follow when recording requests for inspections, tracking these requests, conducting inspections, and following up on inspections.  As a result, inspections were not conducted in a timely manner and the Alarm Unit did not always follow up on Letters of Defect and Violation Orders. In those instances where the Alarm Unit did follow up, it did not generally do so within its own informal time frames.
• The Alarm Unit does not have a reliable system for tracking requests for inspections and actual inspections conducted by the Alarm Unit.
• The record-keeping practices of the Alarm Unit are inadequate: inspection documentation was lacking; requests for inspection documentation were scattered; and filing cabinets containing essential inspection files were unsecured.
• The Alarm Unit inaccurately reported the number of inspections conducted.  This resulted in an inflated number of inspections being reported in the Alarm Unit’s Productivity Report for Fiscal Year 2006 and The Mayor’s Management Report Fiscal 2006.
• The Alarm Unit did not meet its informal target for auditing self-certified inspections.
• The inspectors of the Alarm Unit are not adequately supervised.  As a result, Field Activity Reports were not always approved by Supervising Inspectors, and inspectors were not always working in the field as required.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we make 17 recommendations, including that FDNY should:

• Immediately take steps to address the approximate 3,200 accounts for which Letters of Defect and Violation Orders were issued and never followed up to ensure that all safety-related issues that have been identified are resolved.

• Immediately take steps to reduce the backlog of outstanding inspection requests that are more than three weeks old to determine whether the fire alarm systems are operating as intended and are in compliance with City regulations.

• Develop and implement written procedures for the Alarm Unit to follow. The procedures should include the steps that the Alarm Unit needs to take to ensure compliance with the City Charter and City Administrative Code.

• Create a tracking system that would effectively monitor the inspection process for the Alarm Unit from the date inspection requests are submitted to the date inspections are conducted and Letters of Approval are issued. The system should also be set up to identify whether the Alarm Unit is adhering to established time frames.

• Ensure that the Alarm Unit develops a sound internal control structure over its record-keeping and storage practices.  All records pertaining to the inspection process should be maintained accurately and in an organized manner.

• Ensure that the number of inspections conducted by the Alarm Unit is accurately reported in the Productivity Report and Mayor’s Management Report.   This number should include only those inspections that were actually conducted.

FDNY Response

In their response, FDNY officials agreed with 15 of the 17 recommendations.  They disagreed with the recommendation to create a tracking system to monitor the Alarm Unit inspection process and the recommendation that cabinets containing the inspection files of Letters of Defect and Violation Orders be locked at all times.