Audit Report on the Department of Sanitation Vacant Lot Clean-up Program

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined whether the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) adequately responded to complaints and work orders regarding unclean vacant lots. Vacant lots are identified for cleaning through complaints from residents, Community Boards, and elected officials, as well as through the field observations of DSNY personnel. Under the Vacant Lot Clean-up Program, DSNY’s Lot Cleaning Division (LCD) cuts weeds and removes debris and bulky items from City- and privately-owned vacant lots in the five boroughs. For Fiscal Year 2007, DSNY reported that it cleaned 6,191 vacant lots. Of these, 4,941 were City-owned and 1,250 were privately-owned.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The audit revealed that the DSNY Vacant Lot Clean-up Program had inadequate internal controls over the way it identified vacant lots for cleaning, processed complaints and work orders on vacant lots, and managed the cleaning of the lots. In terms of identifying lots for cleaning and managing cleaning operations, there was a lack of segregation of duties and a lack of proper supervision. Field supervisors had near-total control in determining whether a lot was clean or dirty and, if dirty, the resources that were to be been used to clean it. As a result, LCD resources appear to have been used inefficiently. In addition, the inadequate internal controls increased the possibility that LCD resources could have been used for purposes contrary to their intended use.

In terms of LCD’s processing of complaints and work orders on vacant lots, our review found 1,800 cases that had been opened prior to July 1, 2007, and were still open as of November 2, 2007. These cases had been open in LCD’s PowerBuilder system for an average of more than three years. The audit concluded that, until recently, LCD had not been effectively using its PowerBuilder system to track its aging cases. Furthermore, DSNY does not have written time standards for resolving complaints. For those lots that were cleaned in Fiscal Year 2007, it took LCD an average of 43 days to process and clean a vacant lot after the initial inspection to determine whether the lot needed cleaning. The average was better for complaints generated through the City’s 311 system. For these complaints, DSNY took an average of 35 days to clean the lots.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, the audit recommends, among other things, that DSNY:

• Prepare and implement written procedures to ensure that field supervisors’ functions and duties are properly segregated and supervised.

• Provide for independent verifications of field-supervisor-generated work orders by requiring photographs of all inspected lots for review by district superintendents or the Lot Inspection Unit (LIU).

• Ensure that district superintendents or LIU conduct sample inspections to verify the validity of field-generated work orders.

• Ensure that district superintendents review field supervisors’ plans for assigning resources to clean specific lots.

• Require photographs be taken of cleaned lots for review by the district superintendent.

• Continue to expand use of PowerBuilder’s tracking reports to identify aging cases.

• Continue to expand efforts to research aging cases to determine why they remain open and take the necessary actions to resolve them.

• Develop written time standards for handling vacant lot complaints and field-generated work orders.

DSNY Response

In its response, DSNY generally agreed with eight recommendations and stated that it would take one recommendation under advisement.