Audit Report on the Enhanced Pest Control Program Of the Department of Health

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined whether the Department of Health’s (DOH) implementation of the Enhanced Pest Control Program improved the effectiveness of the agency’s overall pest control efforts. DOH, now part of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), enforces compliance with the City Health Code and provides a range of public health programs and services to promote the health and quality of life of City residents. (This audit covered a period prior to the organizational change.) The Office of Pest Control Services (PCS) enforces the Health Code regulations pertaining to rodent infestation. The scope of our audit was Fiscal Year 2001.

In some areas, PCS has improved the effectiveness of its pest control efforts through the Enhanced Program. PCS is doing a better job at targeting problem areas under the Enhanced Program than it did under the program’s predecessor, the Comprehensive Program. However, we found weaknesses in PCS’s administration of the Enhanced Program and with its follow-up and remediation efforts for properties where pest control violations were identified. PCS regional offices do not consistently comply with the informal procedures of the program, inhibiting the agency’s ability to monitor the program’s overall effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. In addition, PCS consistently fell short of meeting the timeliness goals for performing pest control activities. These weaknesses, if not corrected, will significantly hinder the overall effectiveness of DOHMH in its pest control efforts.

At the exit conference in April 2003, DOHMH officials stated that there were two extraordinary situations that took place during our review period—the West Nile virus crisis in spring 2001 and the attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001—that necessitated the deployment of PCS staff to support DOH efforts to combat the virus and clean up after the attack. This put a strain on PCS resources and affected the timeliness of its pest control efforts. Officials stated that we would find a significant improvement since the audit scope period if we reviewed more recent pest control operations, such as those during Fiscal Year 2002.

However, when we met with DOHMH officials in January 2003 to discuss the audit’s findings, DOHMH officials did not identify the deployment of PCS staff to combat the West Nile virus or to assist in the World Trade Center cleanup as factors in the delays we noted. Moreover, officials at the exit conference told us that the PCS database was not fully functional until February 2003 and that it had no formal procedures for the Enhanced Program. Therefore, although it is possible that the timeliness in performing pest control activities may have improved in some areas, the weaknesses we identified in regard to oversight would have existed even had we reviewed the PCS operations for a later period.

We made four recommendations in this report. DOHMH should:

• Ensure that PCS offices comply with the procedures stated in the Geographic Protocol to better enable the agency to monitor the Enhanced Program and track its overall effectiveness.
• Ensure that senior sanitarians cluster properties related to specific assessments in the PCS database so that staff can use the database to check the status of assessments.
• Take steps to ensure that the PCS regional offices perform all required pest control work in a timely manner and properly maintain records of the work that is performed in accordance with written procedures.
• Ensure that supervisors thoroughly review inspection reports and verify that inspectors recommend remediation efforts (e.g., extermination and cleanup) for properties that fail inspection and meet the criteria for remediation.

In its response, DOHMH generally agreed with the audit’s recommendations. However, the agency disagreed with some of the audit’s findings, specifically those related to DOH’s compliance with the program’s informal procedures and its timeliness in performing pest control activities.