Audit Report on the Financial and Operating Practices of the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The audit determined whether the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office (Borough President’s Office) is complying with applicable payroll, personnel, purchasing, cash receipts, and inventory policies and procedures.

The Borough Presidents are the elected executive officials of each borough. For their boroughs, the City Charter gives them authority to propose budget priorities directly to the City council; review and comment on major land use decisions; monitor and modify the delivery of city services; and engage in strategic planning. Each Borough President’s Office has a Topographical Unit that charges fees for various services it provides, such as assigning street numbers. The Borough President’s Office is located at Borough Hall in downtown Brooklyn, which is also used for events and meetings by outside parties. For Fiscal Year 2007, it had revenues of $809,549, including $290,309 for topographical fees.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Borough President’s Office generally complied with applicable payroll, personnel, purchasing, cash receipts, and inventory policies and procedures. However, our audit disclosed that the Borough President’s Office did not maintain complete and accurate inventory records for its furniture and equipment, did not deposit cash collected as fees for Topographical Unit services in a timely manner, and evidenced slight weakness in the payroll distribution process. The conditions were not of sufficient materiality to detract from our overall opinion.

In addition, building license fees charged to various groups have been paid to and collected by non-profit organizations affiliated with the Borough President’s Office, and not the City, since 1992. The Borough President’s Office is responsible for ensuring that the collection and disbursement of these license fees is conducted in accordance with the agreed-upon arrangement.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues we make six recommendations, including that the Borough President’s Office should ensure that:

• All equipment and furniture is assigned and tagged with sequential ID numbers and added to inventory when received
• Inventory control records include the type of equipment, manufacturer, serial number (or unique identifying information), location, date purchased and received, and assigned ID numbers
• All cash receipts from topographical fees continue to be deposited in a timely manner
• Collection and use of license fees for the use of Brooklyn Borough Hall comply with the December 1991 agreement

Borough President’s Office Response

In their response, Borough President’s Office officials agreed with three recommendations, changed its policies to make one no longer applicable, and did not address the remaining two.