Audit Report on the Cash Controls over Fees Collected by the Marriage Bureau of the Office of the City Clerk and Clerk of the Council

Executive Summary

The City of New York’s Office of the City Clerk (City Clerk) serves as both the Clerk of the City of New York and the Clerk of the City Council. The City Clerk provides a range of services to the public. In particular, it attests to laws enacted by the City Council, keeps transcripts of City Council proceedings, and attests to leases and deeds of City property, grants, agreements, bonds, tax notes, and other forms of obligations of the City. The City Clerk also operates the Lobbying Bureau and the Marriage Bureau.  The objective of this audit was to determine whether the City Clerk’s Marriage Bureau complied with Comptroller’s Directive #11, Cash Accountability and Control, when collecting fees.

The Marriage Bureau provides marriage licenses, domestic partnership certificates, civil marriage ceremonies, and other services, such as providing copies of marriage records. The City Clerk charges the public fees for certain services, including marriage and domestic partnership license fees of $35 and ceremony fees of $25. According to the City Clerk’s website, fees can be paid by credit card or money order. The City Clerk has offices throughout the five boroughs (borough offices) that offer marriage services.  The Manhattan office is the busiest and collects the highest amount of fees.

As reported in the Comptroller’s Annual Financial Report (Annual Report) for Fiscal Year 2018, the City Clerk collected revenues of $6,226,182, composed of $3,198,740 in fees for administrative services, $2,763,903 in marriage licensing fees, and $263,539 in fines. In the Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report, the City Clerk reported revenues of $6,156,596, consisting of $3,262,957 in fees for administrative services, $2,645,390 in marriage licensing fees, and $248,249 in fines.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

Although the City Clerk complied with certain cash control procedures set forth in Comptroller’s Directive #11, we found some internal control weaknesses in the Marriage Bureau’s fiscal operations. Specifically, we found that all five borough offices lacked written policies and procedures to guide their staff uniformly in carrying out Marriage Bureau operations. In that regard, the borough offices failed to adequately safeguard the checks collected in locked safes during the business day and did not deposit fees collected on a daily basis. We also found internal control weaknesses in supervisors’ oversight, in reconciliation of cash receipts to bank deposits, and in issuance of refund checks. In addition, we found that cash, albeit small amounts, was accepted in borough offices even though the City Clerk’s website states that the office accepts credit cards or money orders.

Audit Recommendations

This report makes a total of 10 recommendations, including that the City Clerk:

• Institute a written procedure to guide all employees in the reporting, recording, reconciliation, and safeguarding of fees collected by the City Clerk’s five borough offices.
• Ensure that fees collected throughout the day are stored in a locked safe in accordance with Comptroller’s Directive #11.
• Consider using a Remote Deposit device to facilitate and ensure daily bank deposits of fees collected.
• Strengthen its supervisory oversight of staffs’ daily processes, specifically for reporting and recording the fees collected into the Venus system.
• Refrain from accepting currency and request payments by money order and credit card only. If cash is accepted due to extreme, extenuating circumstances, the City Clerk’s office should document these events.

Agency Response

In its response the City Clerk stated that “[a]uditing is an integral mechanism to ensure the optimal operation of any organization. To that end, I must express my gratitude to you and your staff for the efforts extended on behalf of this office.” The City Clerk agreed to implement 9 of the 10 recommendations and stated that one recommendation has already been implemented.