Audit Report on the Controls of the Department of Transportation over City Disability Parking Permits

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) mission is to provide for the safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible movement of people and goods in New York City and to maintain and enhance the transportation infrastructure crucial to the economic vitality and quality of life of City residents. One of DOT’s functions is the issuance of parking permits. DOT’s Parking Permits for People with Disabilities (PPPD) unit is responsible for the issuance of both the City and State disability parking permits. The focus of this audit was the issuance of City disability parking permits.

City disability parking permits are issued to eligible individuals at no cost to the applicant. To be eligible, an applicant must be a New York City resident or a non-resident who is either employed full-time or attending school in New York City. In addition, the applicant must be certified by a New York City physician designated by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) as having a disability that severely and permanently, or temporarily, impairs the applicant’s mobility, requiring the use of a private vehicle for transportation. A City disability parking permit allows individuals to park at most curbsides on City-owned streets, to park at meters without using an authorized payment method, and to park in areas where regular parking is prohibited. It should be noted that State disability parking permits, not City permits, cover parking places designated “Handicapped Parking” found in most parking lots. During Fiscal Year 2008, the PPPD unit reported that it issued a total of 24,369 City disability parking permits.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DOT’s controls over the issuance of disability parking permits are inadequate. Although we did not find any instances of permits being issued to non-eligible individuals, the PPPD unit’s poor procedures and controls create an environment that allows for the issuance of fraudulent permits without detection. The audit found that:

• DOT’s recordkeeping practices over its inventory of permit seals are grossly deficient. We found at least 22,000 seals unaccounted for, which is a problem since anyone can create fraudulent permits using these seals. Fraudulent permits would undermine DOT’s efforts to ensure that only those who need and qualify for permits receive them and would also result in lost revenue to the City;
• DOT does not monitor the permits it generates, nor does it reconcile the generated permits with applicants’ files to ensure that all printed permits are valid and warranted;
• DOT is not capable of generating key reports on demand, contributing to its inability to monitor permit issuance;
• PPPD personnel share user identifications and passwords in e-Permits (DOT’s computerized processing system) to record applicants’ medical certification assessment information. As a result, DOT is unable to track the identities of those who recorded the certification information and is, therefore, unable to determine whether the information was recorded only by authorized personnel;
• Permits of living individuals were deactivated by the PPPD unit because DOT’s match procedure to identify deceased permit holders is inadequate; and
• DOT does not comply with its own procedures by accepting out-of-state driver’s licenses as proof of identification for applicants who state that they reside within New York City and who are not non-residents employed or attending school in the City.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we make 16 recommendations to the DOT, some of which we highlight here:

• Conduct an immediate investigation to determine the disposition of the 11 boxes of seals (totaling 22,000 disability parking permit seals) that were unaccounted for, as indentified in this report;
• Ensure that inventory records of the disability parking permit seals are accurately maintained and that all seals and their storage location are included in its inventory records;
• Conduct periodic physical inventory counts of the disability parking permit seals to ensure that its inventory records are accurate. If discrepancies are identified between the physical inventory counts and the inventory records, they should be investigated and the results of the investigation documented;
• Ensure that user identifications and passwords are not shared by its employees. User-specific identifications should be created for each employee authorized to record the certification assessment information in the e-Permits system;
• Periodically monitor e-Permits data (e.g., compare permits issued to applications) to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of the permits being issued;
• Develop reports to assist in their monitoring of e-Permit data and printed permits to identify duplicate permits that may have been processed and to ensure accuracy of the recorded data;
• Ensure that all applicants possess a New York State Department of Motor Vehicle Driver’s License or New York State Non-Driver’s Identification card before processing a City disability parking permit, as required by DOT procedures. If DOT changes the requirements for obtaining a disability parking permit, the procedures should be revised accordingly.

DOT Response

DOT officials generally agreed with the audit’s recommendations. However, they disagreed in part with the finding related to the missing disability parking permit seals.