THE CITY OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER
BUREAU OF FINANCIAL AUDIT

FOLLOW-UP AUDIT REPORT ON FIRE DEPARTMENT PROCEDURES FOR REPLACEMENT OF FRONT-LINE VEHICLES

FS09-082F
April 21, 2009

 

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

Download the Complete Audit Report (pdf 171kb)

This follow-up audit determined whether the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) implemented the recommendations made in a previous audit, Audit Report on the Fire Department Procedures for Replacement of Front-line Vehicles (#MH05-073A), issued May 17, 2005.

The previous audit evaluated whether FDNY was in compliance with its union contract with regard to replacement requirements for front-line fire-fighting vehicles.  The audit found that FDNY was in compliance with the replacement requirements for front-line firefighting vehicles in its union contract, but FDNY needed to formalize its replacement procedures in its own written policies.  Also, even though the location information for the spare vehicles was tracked in the FDFLEETS computer database, the location information for spare vehicles in FDFLEETS was not updated regularly.  FDNY is currently working on the development of an Oracle database to replace FDFLEETS for vehicle tracking.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The current follow-up audit disclosed that of the four recommendations made in audit MH05-073A, issued May 17, 2005, FDNY has implemented two and partially implemented two.  FDNY has developed both a policy and guidelines regarding replacement of front-line vehicles, but they have not been signed, dated, or disseminated throughout FDNY.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issues that still exist, we make three recommendations. FDNY should:

• Approve, sign, and date the policy regarding the replacement of the front-line fire-fighting vehicles and spare vehicles when they reach a certain age, and disseminate the policy to all appropriate FDNY units.
  
  
• Approve, sign, and date the guideline that determines when and for how long a spare vehicle should replace a front-line vehicle, and ensure that newer spares are assigned to those vehicles out of service for a longer time.
  
  
• Link the new database being developed for vehicle tracking, once it is in place, to all related FDNY systems.