The State of the City's Economy and Finances Dec 14, 2012 - The Comptroller's Office review of the November Plan finds that while the current year's budget is balanced and the outyear gaps appear manageable,
there still exists an underlying risk to budgetary stability.
New York City's debt has grown from $2,951 per capita in fiscal year 1990 to $9378 by fiscal year 2012, an increase of 218 percent. While New York City has a large amount of outstanding deby and great
capital needs, its credit rating remains strong.
An audit report was filed on December 6, 2012 on the Department of Education's (DOE) controls over the monitoring of individual consultants for mandated services. It was determined that there were significant control weaknesses which prevented DOE from effectively monitoring its individual consultants for mandated services. Such irregularities made it impossible to ensure that possibility of waste or fraud was being adequately controlled. Recommendations were made to rectify these issues.
A follow-up audit report was filed on December 3, 2012 on the Department of Finance's (DOF) Administration of the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) Program. It was determined that DOF had improved its administration of SCRIE. Of the seven recommendations made, DOF implemented six and partially implemented one. However, DOF did not perform death matches against all open accounts. In addition, DOF did not always follow its own policies and procedures pertaining to the recoupment of funds after a change in circumstance. Recommendations were made to rectify these issues.
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upcoming public hearings and meetings; procurement bid solicitations; selected court decisions; bid awards; public auctions and other property disposition actions; official rules proposed and adopted by City agencies.
Procurement bid solicitation notices afford vendors the opportunity to compete for New York City's $17 billion worth of contracts for various categories of goods and services for over 100 agencies and other governmental organizations.
This letter report dated on November 30, 2012 addresses World Ice Arena, LLC's compliance with its New York City license agreement to operate and maintain an ice-skating facility in Queens, New York. The objective was to determine whether World Ice accurately reported its gross receipts to the Department of Parks and Recreation and properly calculated and paid its fees due to the City. It was determined that World Ice generally maintained adequate controls over the recording and reporting of its gross revenues, calculated and paid its fees on time to the City. However, World Ice did not use pre-numbered contracts for group events as required by its agreement. Recommendations were made to rectify this issue.
A follow up audit report was filed on November 29, 2012 on the controls of the Department of Transportation (DOT) over City disability parking permits. The follow-up audit concluded that DOT had improved its controls over the issuance of City disability parking permits. Of the 12 recommendations given in the previous audit, DOT had fully implemented 8. It was determined however that DOT did not conduct periodic physical inventory counts of the seals inventory to ensure that its inventory records were accurate. It was also determined that the Parking Permit Unit did not reconcile the number of seals given to its staff to finalize the permits with the actual number of permits finalized and mailed. Recommendations were made to rectify these issues.
An audit report was filed on November 28, 2012 on the Department for the Aging's (DFTA) awarding of non-competitive and limited-competition contracts. It was determined that DFTA generally had adequate controls relating to the awarding of said contracts and evaluated contractor performance before awarding such contracts. However, DFTA had some internal control weaknesses relating to its contract process and the awarding of its contracts. Recommendations were made to rectify these issues.
An audit report was filed on November 19, 2012 on the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) recoupment of change order costs for the Bower Bay water pollution control plant upgrade. It was determined that the Department did not adhere to procedures for recouping the cost of change order work that was categorized as a design error or design ommission. It was also found that the Department improperly categorized certain change orders. Recommendations were made to tighten internal controls regarding change orders.
This letter report dated on November 19, 2012 addresses Teck Gourmet Five, LLC's compliance with its sublicense agreement to operate and maintain a restaurant and catering facility at Douglaston Golf Course. It was determined that while Teck is operating a catering facility, it is not operating a restaurant as required by the agreement. In addition, Teck's internal controls over the recording of special event revenue need to be enhanced. It was recommended that the Department of Parks and Recreation and Douglaston Golf require Teck to adhere to its contract and strengthen its internal controls.