Follow-up Audit Report on the Controls of the Department of Transportation over City Disability Parking Permits

The main function of the Department of Transportation (DOT) is to provide safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible movement of pedestrians, goods, and vehicular traffic on the streets, highways, bridges, and waterways of the City’s transportation network. One of DOT’s functions is the issuance of parking permits, which is performed by its Authorized Parking and Permits (AP&P) Division. The AP&P Division issues various types of parking permits, including parking permits for people with disabilities. DOT’s Parking Permits for People with Disabilities (PPPD) unit, under the AP&P Division, is responsible for issuing parking permits for people with disabilities, including City disability parking permits.

To qualify for a City disability parking permit, individuals must submit an application to DOT, along with a certification by a personal physician, indicating a permanent disability that severely affects their ability to walk and requires the use of a private vehicle for transportation, which must also be certified by a New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation physician or other Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)-designated physician.

A prior audit report, Audit Report on the Controls of the Department of Transportation over City Disability Parking Permits (Audit No. MD09-076A) issued in February 2010, found that DOT’s controls over the issuance of disability parking permits were inadequate. We conducted this follow-up audit to determine whether DOT has implemented the 12 key recommendations made in the previous audit as well as the current implementation status of each of these recommendations.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The follow-up audit disclosed that DOT has improved its controls over the issuance of City disability parking permits. Of the 12 key recommendations made in the previous audit, we found that DOT implemented eight, partially implemented one, and did not implement one. For the remaining two, the current status of one recommendation could not be determined and one recommendation was no longer applicable.
We determined that DOT does not conduct periodic physical inventory counts of the seals inventory stored at AP&P to ensure that its inventory records are accurate. Furthermore, we found that the PPPD unit does not reconcile the number of seals given to its staff to finalize the permits with the actual number of permits finalized and mailed. Because there are no independent verifications that the number of seals distributed to the staff are all used to process permits, DOT has limited assurance that all seals are appropriately accounted for.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issues that still exist, we recommend that DOT officials should:

• Conduct periodic physical inventory counts of the seals inventory stored at AP&P to ensure that its inventory records are accurate. If discrepancies are identified between the physical inventory counts and the inventory records, they should be investigated and the results of the investigation documented.
• Conduct periodic reconciliations of the seals distributed to their staff each day with the printed permits that are mailed to ensure that all seals are accounted for.

Agency Response

In their response, DOT officials generally agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations.