Letter Report on The Board Of Correction’s Monitoring of Its Employees Who Drive City-Owned or Personally-Owned Vehicles on City Business

Introduction

This audit determined if the Board of Correction (BOC) is effectively monitoring its employees who drive City-owned or personally-owned vehicles on City business.  BOC currently does not own nor has a contractor-leased vehicle. 

New York City requires that only those employees who exercise reasonable care in operating City- or personally-owned vehicles be allowed to use them to conduct City business.  This requirement is outlined in the City of New York’s “City Vehicle Driver Handbook” (Regulations). All agency heads, through the Agency Transportation Coordinator (ATC), must ensure that all employees assigned a City-owned vehicle either for full-time use or temporary use are authorized to drive.  It is also the ATC’s responsibility to ensure that these drivers have valid licenses and insurance (if they are driving their personal vehicles).  The driver’s license should be a New York State License unless the employee is exempt from City residency requirements.  If this is the case, then the authorized driver must have a valid license from the state where he/she resides and must have the appropriate classification for the vehicle which he/she is driving on City business. The Regulations further specify that City agencies must establish programs that promote safety along with proper training in the use of motor vehicles.

In following these criteria, City agencies use the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) License Event Notification System (LENS). The ATC is responsible for notifying DMV of all agency-authorized drivers. This enables the DMV’s LENS program to notify the ATC of any event that affects the driver’s license.  This includes: if a license is expiring; points accrued; accidents; driving while impaired; or driving while under the influence.  This enables the ATC to ensure that only employees with valid licenses are driving on City business.  The City’s policy recommends that agencies participate in LENS to monitor the driving behavior of their employees.

BOC is the oversight agency for the Department of Correction. Consequently, its employees have access to Department of Correction vehicles. We also verified that BOC does not own nor lease a vehicle from a contractor to conduct City business as of June 30, 2012.

Results

We found that BOC does not effectively monitor the driving behavior of its authorized drivers. The details of this audit are below. 

BOC’s ATC did not enroll the Agency’s City Authorized Drivers in LENS and last reviewed drivers’ records on April 14, 2011. While the most current version of the City Vehicle Driver Handbook says nothing about the frequency of each review, §3.4.2 of the previous handbook, dated 1997, states, “The agency obtain and review[sic] the driver’s Abstract of Operating Record (Abstract) from NYS DMV, or the equivalent from the driver’s licensing state, annually.” 

As agency personnel were not enrolled in LENS and no reviews were performed after April 2011, no monitoring of drivers occurred at BOC for over a year.

In addition, BOC is required by City policy to review and monitor the annual drivers’ records, registration information, and proof of insurance check for all Board of Correction employees who use a personally-owned vehicle on City business.  Ensuring compliance with the regulations is the responsibility of the ATC.  However, at BOC, the ATC is assigned a City vehicle and is an authorized City driver.   Our review of the ATC’s driving history shows the following: 

• On January 19, 2008, the ATC was charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).
• On February 1, 2008, the ATC’s license was suspended.
• On December 18, 2008, the ATC was convicted of DWI and the NYS DMV issued him a conditional¹ license.
• On March 17, 2009, the ATC received a non-restricted license. 
• On August 10, 2010, the ATC was in an accident while driving a City vehicle.
• On April 12, 2011, the ATC was informed by BOC that he was not permitted to have access to a City vehicle.

Section 2.2 of the City Regulations states, “Employees assigned to a City Government Vehicle who are charged with and convicted of a DUI or DWI will lose their driving privileges.” Based on City Regulations, the ATC should not have had access to a City vehicle on August 10, 2010, when he was involved in an accident because his driving privileges should have been revoked by BOC due to his DWI conviction.  BOC did not inform the ATC that he was not permitted to have access to a City vehicle until April 12, 2011. 

Despite being informed on April 12, 2011, that he was no longer to have access to a City vehicle,   the ATC was assigned a City vehicle on July 18, 2012, by the Department of Correction (Correction).  BOC states that it did not authorize this assignment.  

The audit made the following recommendations that BOC should:

• Immediately re-assign the responsibility of monitoring its drivers to the appropriate senior manager.

• Enroll BOC employees in LENS.

• Check on an annual basis the licenses and insurance of those BOC employees who use personally-owned vehicles for City business.

• Immediately retrieve the City vehicle assigned to the ATC and return it to Correction.

• If Correction’s vehicles are to be used by BOC employees, establish procedures with Correction to prevent unauthorized individuals from obtaining access to vehicles.

 In its response, BOC generally agreed with the report.