Letter Report on the Office Equipment Inventory Practices at the Three Staten Island Community Boards

Introduction

New York City is divided into 59 administrative districts, each served by a Community Board, which is a local representative body authorized by the New York City Charter to advocate for the residents and needs of its district.  Community Boards have various responsibilities which, in addition to assessing neighborhoods’ needs and addressing community concerns, include vetting land use and zoning proposals.  Each Board has up to 50 non-salaried members appointed by the Borough President of the borough in which the Community Board is located.  Board members must reside, work, or have significant interests in the districts.

While Community Board members serve unpaid two-year terms, Community Boards’ operations are paid for with City funds.  With these funds, each Board hires a District Manager as its chief executive officer whose responsibilities include assisting the Board in the hiring of administrative staff, supervising the staff, and managing the daily operations of the district office.  Each Borough President’s Office also provides administrative assistance to the Community Boards.

Staten Island has three Community Boards, Community Boards 1, 2 and 3, which cover the entire borough.  Each of the Staten Island Boards has a District Manager and at least one full-time clerical staff person.  These salaries are covered by the Community Boards’ Personal Services budget.  In addition, the Community Boards are provided City funds to cover non-personal expenses, known as Other Than Personal Service.

The three Community Boards identified 141 items of office equipment (desktops, laptops, tablets, monitors, printers, scanners, fax machines, and televisions) on their inventory lists.  According to the Comptroller’s Directive #1, Agency Evaluation of Internal Controls Checklist, inventory items such as these require strong controls to ensure accurate recordkeeping and good security. Further, the Department of Investigation’s (DOI) Standards for Inventory Control and Management establishes the controls the Boards must follow.

This audit was conducted to determine whether the three Staten Island Community Boards comply with applicable inventory procedures for office equipment as set forth in DOI’s Standards for Inventory Control and Management and are maintaining effective internal controls over equipment and following the inventory requirements set forth in Comptroller’s Directive #1.

Results

The audit found that the three Community Boards were in compliance with the DOI Standards and Comptroller’s Directive #1.  We reviewed and observed that all 87 office equipment items (including computers, monitors, printers, laptops, cameras, fax machines, and televisions) listed on the Community Boards’ inventory records were present at each Community Board office.  The Community Boards maintained complete and accurate inventory records of their office equipment as mandated by Section 28 of the DOI Standards.

The audit also found that the three Community Boards used correct object codes to categorize the expenses vouchered for the 14 office equipment items purchased during our audit period.  We reviewed a total of 13 payment vouchers for the 14 office equipment items purchased totaling $10,445.  The Community Boards vouchered their expenses correctly as mandated by Comptroller’s Directive #24, §6.0.

The audit recommended that the Community Boards should continue to maintain complete and accurate inventory records of all office equipment in accordance with the DOI Standards and Comptroller’s Directive #1.  The Community Boards should also continue to charge office equipment purchases to the correct object codes in accordance with Comptroller’s Director #24, Agency Purchasing Procedures and Controls.

In their responses, the three Boards agreed with the recommendations and described the steps they have taken or will take to implement the report’s recommendations.