Audit Report on the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office’s Inventory Practices

Executive Summary

New York City’s five District Attorneys (DAs), including the Richmond County DA (RCDA), are each publicly elected to terms of four years and are responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes, assisting victims, and implementing crime prevention strategies in their respective boroughs.  DA office operations are primarily funded by the New York City (City) Treasury.  In addition, they receive federal and State asset forfeiture funds, as well as grants.

The RCDA operates out of seven office locations across Staten Island using equipment and office furniture purchased centrally by its Procurement Department.  From our review of the RCDA’s purchasing records, we estimate that during Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017, the RCDA purchased equipment and furniture at a total cost of $262,915, consisting of $174,293 paid from federal and State asset forfeiture funds that the RCDA disbursed directly through its agency-administered bank accounts, and $88,622 paid from City and grant funds disbursed through the City’s Financial Management System (FMS).  The RCDA manages its equipment and furniture inventory through its Infrastructure Department, which is comprised of two separate units: Information Technology (IT) and Facilities.  The IT Unit is responsible for all inventory functions for computer-related equipment (i.e., CPUs, monitors, laptops, etc.), and the Facilities Unit is responsible for all other equipment and furniture.

We conducted this audit to determine whether the RCDA complied with the Department of Investigation’s (DOI’s) Standards for Inventory Control and Management (DOI Standards), and maintained a reliable and effective system of controls over its equipment and furniture assets inventory in accordance with Comptroller’s Directives #1 and #18.

 Audit Findings and Conclusions

We found that the RCDA did not maintain accurate and complete inventory records in that it did not post additions and updates to inventory records promptly and did not record all required asset information in its inventory records.  By not maintaining accurate and complete inventory lists, the RCDA increases its risk that items could be misplaced, lost, or stolen without detection.  In that regard, we found that the RCDA could not account for 10 of 366 sampled items (3 percent) selected for physical inventory inspection.

In addition, we found that the RCDA did not maintain adequate controls over inventory.  Specifically, the RCDA departments responsible for inventory did not conduct a full inventory count during Calendar Year 2015 and did not investigate items which were unaccounted for as required by the DOI Standards and Comptroller’s Directive #18.  Furthermore, the RCDA did not conduct any inventory count at all during Calendar Year 2016.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, we make a total of eight recommendations, including that the RCDA should:

• Investigate the 10 items that could not be accounted for during inventory inspections and report any missing equipment items to the appropriate authorities.
• Periodically reconcile purchasing and inventory records to ensure that it records all non-consumable goods in its inventory records.
• Develop a procedure to ensure that changes in asset location and status are reported to individuals responsible for updating inventory records.
• Ensure that readable, sturdy property identification tags (reading “Property of the City of New York”) with sequential internal control numbers are assigned and affixed to valuable equipment and furniture items when items are received.
• Investigate all gaps in asset control numbers to ensure that all assets are accounted for.
• Conduct periodic inventory counts, document count results, investigate any discrepancies, and update inventory records, as needed.

Auditee Response

In its response, the RCDA agreed with all of the report’s recommendations.  The RCDA stated, “The audit conducted by the Comptroller’s Office on the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office’s (RCDA) inventory covered years 2015-2017, a period of immense change, transition, and growth for RCDA as a new administration took the helm in the middle of this period under the leadership of District Attorney Michael E. McMahon.  [. . .]  Although many of the critiques in this most recent Audit Report capture the unfortunate reality of an agency in a state of great transition, growth, and flux, and do not necessarily reflect the norm for RCDA and certainly not the expectations of its new leadership, we welcome many of the recommendations offered and have already undertaken their implementation.”