Audit Report on Payments Made by New York City to Accenture LLP for Consulting Services
Audit Report In Brief
The Comptroller’s Office performed an audit to determine whether payments made to Accenture LLP (formerly Andersen Consulting) by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT); the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS); and the Mayor’s Office of Operations (Operations) were reasonable, justified, and adequately supported.
The payments made to Accenture by DCAS and by Operations were reasonable, justified, and adequately supported. However, we found problems with the documentation for $9,144,330 (31 percent) of the $29,544,952 in payments made by DoITT to Accenture that we reviewed. In addition, we found billing errors that resulted in overpayments of $26,102 (of which $22,827 was paid by DoITT and $3,275 was paid by DCAS) and underpayments of $21,986 (of which $20,336 was attributable to DoITT projects and $1,650 to the NYCAPS project).
To address these issues we recommend that DoITT should:
- Ensure that all payments on contracts are based on signed, complete, and approved invoices. The invoices should be supported by appropriate documentation, such as: signed and approved timesheets with evidence of review and approval by the project manager (for labor), and vendor invoices and receiving and inspection reports (for materials).
- Reexamine the invoices and supporting documentation for all payments made to Accenture for the 3-1-1 and E-Gov Initiative projects and determine whether any recoupment action is warranted.
- Recoup the net overpayment of $2,491 identified in this audit.
We also recommend that DCAS should:
- Reexamine the invoices and supporting documentation for all payments made to Accenture for the NYCAPS project and determine whether any recoupment action is warranted.
- Recoup the $1,625 overpayment identified during the audit.