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

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

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

Borough Presidents, elected by the people of each of the five New York City boroughs for a term of four years, are the executive officials of their boroughs. For Fiscal Year 2006, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of the Comptroller reported that the Staten Island Borough President Office’s (Borough President’s Office) expenditures totaled $3.97 million: $3.15 million for Personal Service (PS) and $866,001 for Other Than Personal Service (OTPS).

The Topographical Bureau of the Borough President’s Office is responsible for maintaining various records, maps, surveys, topographical data, house and building street-number data, and other related material. For Fiscal Year 2006, the Borough President’s Office collected $175,100 in revenue from its Topographical Bureau fees.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Borough President’s Office generally complied with applicable Comptroller’s Directives, leave regulations for managerial and non-managerial employees, Procurement Policy Board (PPB) rules regarding payroll, personnel, purchasing, cash receipts (which are collected in the form of certified checks and money orders), and Department of Investigation (DOI) standards regarding inventory activities.

However, our audit disclosed minor weaknesses in the controls over cash receipts (which are collected in the form of certified checks and money orders) collected for Topographical Bureau fees, and in the manner the Borough President’s Office recorded newly purchased items on the master inventory list. In addition, the Borough President’s Office did not document authorizations for several employees to carry excess annual leave balances and evidenced slight weaknesses in the payroll distribution process. After advising the Borough President’s Office of our findings, officials took appropriate action to correct some of those weaknesses.

Recommendations

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

• Require the Topographical Bureau staff to stamp all remittance checks with a restrictive endorsement stamp immediately upon receipt;
• Ensure that all cash receipts are deposited in a timely manner;
• Ensure that all items are properly recorded on the inventory master list and that the receiving documents contain the proper identifying numbers;
• Ensure that a properly approved relinquishment form is issued before discarding inventory items;
• Continue to ensure that its employees sign for their payroll stubs; and
• Ensure that leave balances are monitored and enforce City leave regulations for managerial and non-managerial employees.

Agency Response

In its response, the Borough President’s Office agreed with the audit recommendations.