Audit Report on the Independent Budget Office’s Response to Information Requests

This audit determined the adequacy of the New York City Independent Budget Office’s (IBO) efforts to respond to constituent requests for information.

IBO is a publicly-funded agency established to enhance the understanding of and to provide non-partisan information about the City’s budget and other fiscal matters. IBO publishes three City Charter-mandated reports each year along with other reports and publications related to City revenues, expenditures, and financial management practices. IBO also responds to a wide range of questions and requests from external parties for information, research, and analysis on the City budget and related matters. IBO classifies these requests as either major requests or minor requests based on the amount of research and analysis required and staff resources involved. Major requests generally involve in-depth research and analysis requiring several weeks or even months to complete and may result in a published report. Minor requests are generally straightforward and involve little research and time to address.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

This audit concluded that IBO has adequate procedures in place to communicate management objectives and goals governing external information requests to its staff. Further, it has adequate controls and procedures in place that address the handling and processing of major requests that are undertaken on a project basis and require significant time and staff resources. However, because IBO does not maintain records of all of the information requests it receives, there was limited evidence available to test to obtain assurance that all information requests received from external parties are addressed and responded to promptly. IBO’s lack of a mechanism to track information requests limits IBO management’s ability to assess the overall effective and efficient use of its staff resources in responding to such requests.

Audit Recommendations

To address these weaknesses, the audit recommended that IBO should: (1) implement a mechanism to comprehensively log all external requests for information and track them from initiation to completion, and (2) consider establishing a formal measurement to track and evaluate performance statistics relevant to external information requests to enhance accountability and assist management to better assess the effective and efficient use of its staff in addressing such requests.

Agency Response

IBO disagreed with the audit’s two recommendations. After carefully reviewing IBO’s arguments, we respectfully disagree with IBO’s position and stand by our findings.