Audit Report on the Building Information System of the Department of Buildings

We performed an audit on the Building Information System (BIS) at the Department of Buildings (Department) to evaluate whether BIS is an effective tool, functions reliably, and supports the Department’s mission. Implemented in the mid-1980s, BIS is a mainframe computer database application containing information on properties, complaints, and violations within the City. In August 2001, the Department updated BIS by establishing an Internet-based application (BIS on the Web) to provide the general public and members of the construction industry with access to building, complaint, and license information.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

BIS is secure from unauthorized access, functions reliably, and is an effective tool that allows Department users to record and track building code violations, permit registrations and approvals, complaints, licensing, and inspections; and BIS supports the Department’s mission of ensuring the safe and lawful use of more than 900,000 buildings and properties in the City. In addition, the system allows public users to access data easily through BIS on the Web. We did find, however, that the Department does not have adequate application software controls in place to ensure that information (from other City agencies) downloaded into the BIS Property database is accurate and reliable.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, we recommend that the Department:

• Establish application software controls that ensure that all information entered in BIS is accurate.

• Establish policies and procedures with data-originating agencies to reduce the overall missing-data problem attributable to those agencies to a more acceptable rate of less than one percent of total records.