Objectives

To determine whether the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) properly accounted for and surplussed its New York City region vehicles, and whether staff used those vehicles solely for official State business. The audit covered the period April 1, 2016 through May 1, 2019.

About the Program

OPWDD is responsible for coordinating services for more than 130,000 New Yorkers with developmental disabilities. Regional Developmental Disabilities State Operations Offices administer and oversee State operations for OPWDD, including transporting clients from OPWDD-run residences to service providers or medical appointments using the agency’s more than 3,000 State-owned vehicles. 

In the New York City region, OPWDD reports having 115 State-run residences overseen by four local Developmental Disabilities Services Offices (DDSOs): Metro NY (the Bronx and Manhattan), Brooklyn, Bernard M. Fineson (Queens), and Staten Island. Per OPWDD and information obtained from the Office of General Services (OGS), as of October 2018, these four DDSOs had a fleet of about 484 vehicles. While each residence is assigned its own vehicles, the DDSOs’ transportation offices maintain about 136 of the 484 vehicles for business use. These vehicles are available to the residences as needed. 

State agencies are responsible for keeping accurate inventory records of their assigned vehicles, including current status and location. In addition, OPWDD’s Fleet Management Policy states that vehicles must be used for official State business only, and each use must be recorded in a vehicle log, along with trip details such as date and time of use, driver, and purpose of the trip. Vehicles that are determined to be underutilized, unnecessary, or past their useful lives should be surplussed and sold at auction through OGS.

Key Findings

OPWDD lacks sufficient controls over fleet vehicle management at the four DDSOs to ensure that all vehicles are properly accounted for, that vehicles are used for official State business only, and that DDSOs are properly surplussing vehicles following a process that is fair and complies with OGS requirements. Such deficiencies, which might largely be attributable to OPWDD’s lack of procedures and guidance, create an environment at risk of mismanagement and impropriety. For example:

• All four DDSOs had a significant number of missing and/or incomplete vehicle logs, including logs for vehicles used by some high-ranking staff.
• Due to poor monitoring, OPWDD lost track of one vehicle assigned to Bernard M. Fineson and could not rule out its possible theft.
• Of 12 vehicles surplussed and auctioned at Staten Island, 5 were purchased by a supervisor at the facility or a member of his immediate family. The supervisor was directly involved in the selection of vehicles to be surplussed.
• OPWDD did not ensure that license plates for surplussed vehicles were promptly returned to OGS and/or the Department of Motor Vehicles, thus increasing the risk that these stillvalid plates could have been used inappropriately.

Key Recommendations

• Require DDSOs to maintain complete vehicle logs for all vehicles to ensure that vehicles are used solely for State business.
• Establish surplussing policies and procedures that address the deficiencies identified in this report, including employees (and their family members) purchasing surplussed vehicles and the time frames for sending surplussed vehicles to auction and turning in associated license plates.
• Issue guidelines that require DDSOs to conduct periodic inventories to account for their vehicles.