Audit Report On The Small Procurement And Vouchering Practices Of The Department Of Records And Information Services

This audit determined whether the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) complies with applicable Procurement Policy Board (PPB) rules and Comptroller’s Directives governing small procurement and vouchering practices. DORIS maintains and preserves the City’s historical documents and publications, and responds to reference and research requests from the general public. DORIS is subdivided into three divisions: Municipal Archives, the Municipal Records Management Division, and the City Hall Library. For Fiscal Year 2005, DORIS expended $2,006,537 for Other Than Personal Services (OTPS). Although DORIS handles most of its own purchases, procurements of goods costing more than $25,000 are handled for DORIS by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), based on purchase requisitions prepared and approved by DORIS.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

Our review of DORIS’s small procurement and vouchering practices indicated that the agency generally complied with applicable PPB rules and Comptroller’s Directives. As required by those guidelines, DORIS has established an adequate segregation of duties for its small procurement practices. Also, based on our review of purchase documents relating to our sample, DORIS, in general, properly authorized purchases, encumbered agency funds, charged the correct object codes, sought and obtained the required number of bids, documented the receipt of goods and services, and made authorized payments on its small procurements, as required. In addition, miscellaneous vouchers were properly authorized and used, and the imprest fund was periodically reconciled, as required. However, DORIS occasionally used signature stamps in the approval of purchase documents. In addition, DORIS did not stamp the invoice receipt date on its vendors’ invoices and did not record the dates of delivery of goods or services.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, we make the following recommendations:

• DORIS should discontinue the use of signature stamps on purchase documents.
• DORIS should stamp the invoice receipt date on its vendors’ invoices and record delivery dates to track compliance with the PPB Prompt Payment rule.

Agency Response

In its response, DORIS officials agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations.