Audit Report on the Department of Buildings’s Audit of Professionally Certified Building Applications

The Department of Buildings (Department) is responsible for granting building permits to property owners who want to alter, build an addition to, or erect a structure. To obtain a building permit, a property owner must submit to the Department plans prepared by a licensed professional engineer or registered architect, which are examined by the Department to ensure compliance with building code and zoning requirements. Alternatively, since 1995, property owners can obtain a building permit by having their permit applications ‘professionally certified’ by the licensed engineer or architect who affirms that the plans comply with all applicable laws and codes. Approximately 45 percent of permit applications in Fiscal Year 2010 were professionally certified.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Department did not comply with its policies and procedures for auditing professionally certified building applications. Department policy required that 20 percent of professionally certified applications be audited within 10 days after a building permit is obtained; however, our review indicated that the Department audited only 55 percent of the required number of applications.

Audits ensure that professionally certified applications comply with regulations meant to safeguard the public, such as zoning, fire safety requirements, and access for persons with disabilities. In many cases, Department audits have uncovered substantive problems with professionally certified applications. Therefore, by falling short of the requirement to audit 20 percent of professionally certified applications, the Department may be neglecting to uncover serious problems pertaining to public safety.

Moreover, the data about professionally certified applications that we obtained from the Department was unreliable. Consequently, we could not ascertain an accurate population of applications that were subject to audit.

Furthermore, in two Department borough offices—Brooklyn and Queens—the Department did not audit a representative sample of application types. In addition, the Department did not always comply with its regulations governing the commencement of audits and the resolution of audit objections. Finally, the Department is not providing to the Mayor’s Management Report accurate statistics for reporting the auditing of professionally certified applications as required by Department policy.

Audit Recommendations

This report makes a total of eight recommendations, including that the Department:

• Ensure that all selected professionally certified building applications are audited and comply with regulations governing the timeframes for auditing applications.
• Take immediate steps to resolve any outstanding problems pertaining to audits of professionally certified applications discussed in this report.
• Develop adequate controls so that information contained in Department data records is complete and accurate as required by Comptroller Directive #18.
• Provide accurate, reliable data for reporting in the Mayor’s Management Report about the actual numbers of audits conducted of professionally certified building applications.

Department Response

The Department appears to have agreed or partially agreed with seven recommendations and disagreed with one recommendation. The Department noted in its response that it has revised its policies and procedures by drafting a ‘new Operations Policy and Procedure Notice that supersedes the current OPPN #1/04.’