Audit Report on the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Street Tree Pruning Program

Audit Report on the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Street Tree Pruning Program

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit was conducted to determine whether the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has adequate controls over the street tree pruning process engaged in by private vendors under contract with DPR.  DPR’s Forestry Division oversees its Street Tree Pruning Program and is responsible for maintaining approximately 650,000 trees along City streets and parkways (street trees).  The Forestry Division has a Borough Forestry Office in each of the five boroughs assigned to maintain the trees within its respective borough.  This audit focused on street tree pruning performed by private contractors for trees of five inches in diameter or greater.

Pursuant to contracts with DPR, the contractor who plants the trees has initial responsibility for the care and maintenance of street trees for the first two years after they are planted.  Thereafter, DPR personnel are responsible for emergency pruning of street trees and for pruning trees that are less than five inches in diameter.  DPR enters into contracts with private vendors that require them to prune street trees that are five inches or greater in diameter.

Each year, DPR sets a goal for the number of street trees five inches in diameter or more to be pruned based on available funding, average pruning cost, and the previous year’s performance. DPR estimates that at its current rate of operation, it will take between 10 to 12 years to prune all eligible trees in the current pruning cycle.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DPR has inadequate controls over its street tree pruning process.  Four of the five Borough Forestry Offices—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island—have weaknesses that increase the risk that trees requiring pruning will not be pruned which increases the risk of injuries to people and property from falling limbs.  As a result, there is also an increased risk of the City being held liable for any personal injuries and property damage that occurs.

We specifically found that the Manhattan and Staten Island Forestry Offices did not prepare detailed lists of trees requiring pruning for their contractors and did not have evidence that they conducted post-pruning inspections of the contractors’ work.  We also found that the Brooklyn and the Bronx Forestry Offices erroneously included undersized trees in their lists that should not have been pruned pursuant to the pruning contracts.  These findings are of particular concern because the absence of accurate lists of trees in need of pruning by the contractors hinders the Borough Offices’ ability to direct and monitor the contractors’ work.  Furthermore, using funds to pay for the erroneous pruning of undersized trees means that trees that are five inches or greater in diameter that need pruning will not receive it during that year.

In addition, DPR does not have adequate controls to ensure that it is paying for pruning services that were actually provided.  For instance, in the sample of trees in Manhattan and Staten Island we reviewed, 20 percent of funds paid to contractors were paid for trees that were either ineligible under the contract or did not appear to have been pruned at all.  We also found that the Manhattan Forestry Office does not have a methodology in place to systematically track the streets where pruning was supposed to have been done by the contractor, making it difficult for DPR to ensure that no streets have been omitted during a given pruning cycle.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issues raised by this audit, we made six recommendations:

• DPR should ensure that accurate, detailed lists of trees that meet the minimum size requirement and require pruning are prepared, including the tree’s specific location, and that these lists are provided to the contractors to direct their pruning.
• DPR should ensure that post-pruning inspections are performed and documented, verifying the adequacy of the pruning and confirming pruned trees meet the contract specifications.
• DPR should ensure that adequate reconciliations of the contractors’ invoices are executed to make certain that payments are made only for trees meeting the contract specifications.
• DPR should ensure that the Manhattan Forestry Office tracks the streets that have been pruned by the contractor to help ensure that no streets are missed and that all trees in need are pruned.
• DPR should investigate and attempt to recoup the money that was paid for the trees that were less than five inches in diameter or that were not pruned.
• DPR should refer to the Department of Investigation any evidence DPR finds of an intentional falsification of invoices by a contractor.

Agency Response

DPR officials agreed with the audit’s recommendations but disagreed with the audit’s finding that the agency has inadequate controls over its contract pruning program for street trees.