Audit Report on the New York City Department of Buildings’ Controls over Field Inspectors

Executive Summary

The objective of this audit was to determine whether the Department of Buildings (DOB) has sufficient controls over field inspectors to be reasonably assured that inspections are being performed in an appropriate manner and that the results are properly reported and recorded.

DOB’s mission includes working to ensure the safe and lawful use of more than 1,000,000 buildings and 40,000 active construction sites by enforcing the New York City (City) Building Code, Construction Codes and Zoning Resolution, as well as the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law.  DOB is responsible for enforcing compliance with these regulations and promoting public safety through its reviews and approvals of building plans, its permitting and licensing functions, and its inspections and enforcement activities.

With regard to inspections and enforcement, the New York City Administrative Code § 28-103.16 grants DOB inspectors the authority to conduct inspections to assess whether construction contractors are protecting the public and property by complying with all laws, rules and regulations while conducting building and construction work.  Failure to operate within the guidelines set by the Building and Construction Codes and the Zoning Resolution could result in violations, monetary penalties, and/or criminal charges for the responsible parties.  The New York City Administrative Code grants DOB inspectors the authority to issue summonses, appearance tickets and notices of violations.

The focus of this audit was DOB’s oversight of inspectors working in the following six units: the Building Enforcement Safety Unit (BEST); Special Operations Unit (Sp-Ops); Borough Construction Development’s (Construction Development) Brooklyn and Queens units; and Borough Construction Enforcement’s (Construction Enforcement) Brooklyn and Queens units.  Together, they performed the majority (59 percent) of the construction field inspections during Fiscal Year 2017.

Audit Findings and Conclusion

DOB has insufficient controls over field inspectors to reasonably ensure that inspections are performed in an appropriate manner and that the results are properly reported and recorded.  Although DOB has established an Inspections Oversight procedure intended to provide oversight of inspectors in the field, we identified significant deficiencies in the agency’s implementation of that procedure.  Specifically, we found that DOB lacked evidence that many of the required QA Trainings and Reviews were conducted.  Further, we found that for those that were conducted, a significant percentage were not conducted in accordance with DOB’s stated protocols.  In addition, DOB had limited evidence that follow-ups of inspections determined to be unsatisfactory were conducted.  DOB also lacked evidence that most of the required reviews to track inspectors’ whereabouts were ever performed.  Further, DOB also provided no evidence that QA In-House reviews of supervisors were conducted.

We also found that many of the fields in DOB NOW: Inspections (DOB NOW) that provide critical information relating to the QA inspections were not initially mapped in DOB’s reporting tool which rendered it useless in generating meaningful reports on QA inspections.  DOB’s ability to monitor and enforce the Inspections Oversight procedure was thereby significantly impeded.  Lastly, we found that DOB NOW allows the results for certain types of inspections to be finalized automatically by the system, without supervisory review.  This weakness in oversight increases the risk that unsafe work practices or work sites will not be identified.

As a result of these deficiencies, DOB is unable to reasonably ensure that inspectors are adequately performing inspections and following their assigned routes.  In particular, it diminishes the agency’s ability to identify weaknesses or non-conformance with DOB policies and to take appropriate measures when issues or concerns are identified.  Consequently, DOB has less assurance in the accuracy, reliability and integrity of the work of inspectors who are responsible for ensuring that construction work is being performed in compliance with building and construction codes, thereby increasing the risk to public safety.

Audit Recommendations

Based on the audit, we make 13 recommendations, including:

• DOB should ensure that required QA Trainings and Reviews are performed bi-monthly for all inspectors by reviewing and monitoring the QA Inspection database.
• DOB should ensure that its requirement that there is a minimum of five days between QA Trainings and Reviews for the same inspector is adhered to.
• DOB should ensure that QA GPS tracking reviews are conducted bi-monthly for all inspectors in accordance with DOB procedures.
• DOB should ensure that required QA In-House reviews of supervisors are performed and documented.
• DOB should ensure that required follow-ups of QA inspections rated as “unsatisfactory” and “needs improvement” are conducted, adequately documented and appropriately indicated as follow-ups in the database.
• DOB should ensure that inspection results receive the required supervisory review before they are auto-finalized in DOB NOW.
• DOB should ensure that the DOB NOW QA inspection reporting tool captures all relevant information for QA inspections so that it can be used to adequately and timely monitor compliance with the Inspections Oversight procedure.

Agency Response

In its response, DOB agreed with one recommendation (#1) and partially agreed with nine recommendations (#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #8, #10, #11 and #13).  DOB disagreed with the remaining three recommendations, that it:  modify the QA inspections database and QA inspection forms so that follow-up QA inspections can be tracked (#6); ensure that QA inspection forms are maintained by units that are not using DOB NOW (#9); and ensure that inspection results receive the required supervisory review before being auto-finalized in DOB NOW (#12).