Audit Report on the Department of Environmental Protection Controls Over the Billing of Water and Sewer Charges of Residential Properties

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) protects the environmental health, welfare, and natural resources of New York City (City). DEP’s Bureau of Customer Services (BCS) is responsible for the billing of water and sewer charges for all properties within the City. BCS maintains customer, premise, and utility information using the Customer Information System (CIS). It also verifies the accuracy of water meters and remotes (reading device affixed to the front outside wall of a property) and inspects, repairs, and replaces them. Con Edison, through a contract with DEP, is responsible for reading meters. In general, each property’s meter is read every three months (billing cycle).

The premises of certain qualifying organizations are eligible for an exemption from payment of water and sewer charges. According to CIS, during Fiscal Year 2007 there was a total of 765,431 accounts associated with residential properties citywide that were billed approximately $1.4 billion in water and sewer charges. Our audit determined whether DEP has adequate controls over the billing of water and sewer charges for residential properties to ensure that bills are accurate and that it has properly identified all properties whose accounts should be billed.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

In general, DEP has adequate controls in place to ensure that bills are accurate. However, DEP lacks the controls needed to ensure that it properly identifies properties whose accounts should be billed. As a result, there is an increased risk that accounts may not be billed for water and sewer use and monies due the City will go uncollected.

We identified the following areas of concern: properties incorrectly placed on inactive status resulting in their respective accounts not being billed an estimated $11,409, lacking or incomplete exemption files, and a lack of monitoring of water use for exempt frontage accounts. The audit also found that an estimated $26,177 was not billed to certain accounts because they were incorrectly classified as exempt from payment of water and sewer charges. In addition, DEP needs to improve its monitoring of accounts: there was untimely or lack of completion of work related to meters or remotes and accounts with three or more consecutive estimated bills were not always investigated as required. DEP also has an inadequate tracking system for monitoring overdue work orders related to meters or remotes. Finally, DEP does not have formal procedures for calculating estimated bills in which the average amount of water use is computed manually or for assessing whether properties are eligible for exemption from payment of water and sewer charges.

We did find for our sampled accounts that DEP correctly calculated the water and sewer charges based on the meter readings indicated in its browser application system (BAPPS) and correctly calculated late payment charges. We verified that DEP used the correct average amount of water use for the calculation of the estimated bills in our sample. In addition, we verified that, in general, actions recorded in the Customer Notes screens did in fact occur and that all cycles were billed. DEP adequately monitors permits issued to plumbers responsible for meter work. Also, when Customer Registration Forms are submitted, DEP generally updates the owner information in CIS.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we make 23 recommendations, including that DEP should:

Investigate the four accounts that we determined were incorrectly placed on inactive status and that should, therefore, be billed for water and sewer charges. After examination, and if warranted, start billing the accounts and recoup the moneys owed for the unbilled periods.

Create a tracking system that would effectively monitor the inactive accounts. This system should include, but not be limited to: the date the account becomes inactive, the reason the account has become inactive, and an indication of whether or not the account will permanently remain on inactive status.

Investigate the three accounts that we determined should not be exempt from payment of water and sewer charges. After examination, and if warranted, start billing the accounts and recoup the moneys owed for the unbilled periods.

Establish formal procedures for calculating estimated bills in which the average amount of water use is computed manually rather than automatically in CIS. The procedures should include all of the situations in which bills would be manually estimated and the appropriate methods for their calculations.

Develop and implement written procedures for the Exemption Unit. The procedures should include the steps that the Exemption Unit needs to take to ensure compliance with the rules governing exempt properties in the New York State Law and the City Administrative Code. Among the procedures should be those for handling new organizations requesting exemption from the payment of water and sewer charges and periodically reviewing organizations that have already been granted exemptions to ensure that all of them should continue to be exempt.

Improve its oversight of accounts to ensure that work related to the installation, repairing, or replacement of meters or remotes is completed in a timely manner and that accounts receiving three or more consecutive estimated bills are investigated.

Ensure that a work order is closed and indicates a resolution when DEP has completed the work and performed the work under another work order.

DEP Response

In their response, DEP officials agreed with 19 of the 23 recommendations and disagreed with the remaining 4 recommendations.