Letter Report on the Legal Affairs Agencies’ Monitoring of Their Employees Who Use An E-ZPass and Parking Permits While Driving City-Owned or Personally-Owned Vehicles on City Business
AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF
Introduction
This audit determined if the Legal Affairs agencies are effectively monitoring their employees who use an E-ZPass and parking permits while driving City-owned or personally-owned vehicles on City business in accordance with applicable rules and regulations.
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.
In addition, E-ZPasses should be issued only to authorized drivers, thus allowing said Agency personnel to perform their responsibility in an effective manner. E-ZPasses are issued by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Bridges and Tunnels (MTA). All E-ZPass usage must be reported to the ATC. Drivers are allowed to use a City-sponsored E-ZPass only when conducting official City business and in connection with the approved use of a City government vehicle. Subsequently, the driver must fill out a vehicle trip log detailing what the vehicle was used for and why it needed to be used so that accurate agency vehicle triplog books can be maintained. The MTA sends detailed summary reports on travel to the designated agency E-ZPass representative for review.
Drivers must be aware of their agency’s in-house procedures regarding the use of parking permits, including areas where City government vehicles are permitted to park. Parking permits must be properly displayed to ensure visibility through the windshield. Permits may only be used for official City business in connection with the assigned City government vehicle and only as described by the parking permit and any other accompanying instructions.
Results
We found that all five Legal Affairs agencies monitor their authorized drivers’ use of E-ZPasses and permits in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. However, we found a minor weakness in the completion of the driver vehicle trip logs; of the 5005 E-ZPass transactions, we found that 58 transactions (1 percent) which had been included in the E-ZPass statements were not recorded in the driver vehicle trip logs. We confirmed that these transactions, which primarily affected the Business Integrity Commission, had been appropriately authorized and approved by management. This 1 percent omission did not affect our conclusion that all five agencies effectively monitored E-ZPass usage. We are bringing this matter to the attention of all the Legal Affairs agencies so that they can ensure all transactions are recorded in the driver vehicle trip log and are properly authorized.
In their response, the five Legal Affairs agencies’ officials agreed with the report’s conclusions.