[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether:

• The Board of Directors (Board) approved projects that provide for net tax exemptions with appropriate and measurable goals.
• Officials monitored projects to ensure goals were met and the Board took action when goals were not met.

Key Findings

• The City of Albany Industrial Development Agency (CAIDA) did not incorporate goals into project agreements.
• Thirteen of the 15 projects met or exceeded their job creation and/or retention goals. These 13 projects had 2015 and 2016 employment goals to create and/or retain 1,034 and 1,270 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs and reported a total of 1,666 and 1,876 FTE jobs, respectively.
• The CAIDA did not monitor project performance for investment or revitalization goals.

Key Recommendations

The Board should:

• Monitor the new project evaluation and assistance framework (framework) and provide a standard exemption policy.
• Ensure projects are approved with measureable goals that are carried forward to agreements.
• Monitor goals and document project performance and action taken.

CAIDA officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Appendix C includes our comments on issues raised in the IDA’s response letter.