Follow-up Audit Report on the Administration of the Enhanced Pest Control Program by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

This follow-up audit determined whether the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has implemented the four recommendations made in a previous audit of DOHMH’s Enhanced Pest Control Program (Audit Report on the Enhanced Pest Control Program of the Department of Health, MJ02-059A, issued June 27, 2003) and corrected the conditions identified in that audit. DOHMH provides a wide variety of programs that promote the health and mental well-being of City residents. It also enforces compliance with the City Health Code. The DOHMH Office of Pest Control Services (PCS) enforces the health code regulations pertaining to rodent infestation. The Enhanced Pest Control Program that was in place during our previous audit and was intended to identify specific geographic areas with rodent problems was discontinued in 2003. In September 2003, DOHMH instituted the Rodent Control Initiative Program (Rodent Initiative). This program targeted three areas that were believed to have the worst rodent infestation and involved the efforts of several City agencies, with DOHMH taking the lead.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

Of the four recommendations made in the previous audit, DOHMH implemented three recommendations and did not implement one recommendation as follows:

First, DOHMH has implemented relevant functions in its PCS database that make the pest control process more automated, thereby allowing for faster processing of pest control work. Second, as recommended, the three regional offices that are participating in the Rodent Initiative used the PCS database to cluster and track pest control activities that were performed in the program. Lastly, supervisors now review compliance inspection reports and ensure that extermination and/or cleanup efforts are recommended when properties fail inspections. DOHMH did not implement the previous recommendation that it have adequate procedures in place to ensure that complaints are addressed in a timely manner.

During this audit, we found that PCS does not have procedures in place to ensure that duplicate complaints are adequately researched and the relevant job tickets closed after determining that the system’s categorization of the complaint as a duplicate is correct.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issues that still exist, we recommend that DOHMH:

1. Modify its Pest Control Services Policy and Procedures Manual, Volume II—Operations to include specific time requirements for the various stages of the pest control remediation process, detailed procedures for handling duplicate complaints, and procedures for tracking workload.

2. Ensure that the monitoring tools available on the database for tracking the work load and productivity of the regional offices contain accurate and usable information, and that the personnel in the regional offices are using these tools to monitor performance.

Agency Response

DOHMH officials agreed with the audit’s recommendations.