Audit Report on the Financial and Operating Practices of the Manhattan Borough President’s Office

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined whether the Manhattan Borough President’s Office (Office) is complying with applicable payroll, timekeeping, purchasing, and inventory procedures, as set forth in the Office of Payroll Administration policies and procedures, the Procurement Policy Board Rules (PPB Rules), and the New York City Comptroller’s Internal Control and Accountability Directives (Comptroller’s Directives).

During Fiscal Year 2003, Personal Services (PS) expenditures for the Office amounted to $3,427,924; Other Than Personal Services (OTPS) expenditures amounted to $433,641. The Office employed 69 persons during the year.

The Office generally adhered to the Comptroller’s Directives, the PPB Rules, and the Office of Payroll Administration policies and procedures with respect to payroll, timekeeping, and purchasing. Our examination of the Office’s PS and OTPS expenditures disclosed no instances in which moneys were improperly used.

However, there were instances in which the Office did not comply with certain provisions of Comptroller’s Directives #3, #11, #23, and #25, and the City Time and Leave Regulations and Payroll Management System guidelines. In addition, the Office did not ensure that all employees’ wages were within the salary ranges of their Career and Salary Plan titles. Finally, the Office did not have complete records for its computer inventory. We believe that the weaknesses found were generally minor, with the exception of those reported in the findings of lack of documentation with regard to discretionary grants and the incompleteness of computer inventory records. These findings were also reported in a 1998 audit of the Financial and Operating Practices of the Office. Nevertheless, these two findings, taken in context of the audit objectives and scope of work reviewed, do not detract from the audit’s overall conclusion that the Office generally complied with applicable payroll, timekeeping, and purchasing procedures.

We make nine recommendations to the Office, some of which are listed below. The Office should:

• Maintain proper documentation indicating that all approvals were obtained before disbursing discretionary grant funds and that the grantees were monitored for compliance with the terms of the grants.
• Ensure that all computer equipment is included on the inventory list and accurately identified as to serial number, inventory tag, and location.
• Ensure that someone who does not have any other imprest fund responsibilities prepares the imprest fund bank reconciliations and require that person to sign off on the reconciliations.
• Ensure that it uses miscellaneous payment vouchers for only allowable purposes as described in Comptroller’s Directive #25.