View audit

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released an audit of the Environmental Control Board’s computer systems dedicated to tracking violations, including those issued for air, water, and noise pollution, improper waste disposal, and lack of street and water supply cleanliness.

“The Environmental Control Board has done well, but there is still room for improvement,” Thompson said. “ECB should work with the Mayor’s Office of Operations and City agencies to ensure that that the City does not lose out on much-needed revenue and that those who are in violation of city statutes are not let off the hook as a result of sloppy paperwork.”

The Environmental Control Board (ECB) enforces the provisions of the New York City Charter and the City’s Administrative Code, including those relating to street cleanliness, waste disposal, water supply purity, and the prevention of air, water and noise pollution. ECB functions as an administrative tribunal that provides hearings on notices of violation issued by a number of City agencies. A NOV is a written legal notice that charges the recipient with violating one or more of the City’s rules or laws.

Once a violation is issued, the matter may be resolved only through the adjudication process at ECB. Cases are heard by ECB hearing officers who act as impartial decision-makers. ECB issues only monetary penalties or orders to correct violations when it finds individuals or entities in violation of the City’s laws.

In the early 1980s, ECB shifted from an entirely manual system to a mostly computerized operation consisting of two applications, Automation Violation Processing System (AVPS) and Bureau of Air Resources Automated Management Information Systems (BARAMIS). AVPS and BARAMIS were combined into one system in 1999, which was renamed the Automated Information Management System (AIMS). ECB uses AIMS to track more than 700,000 cases annually.

Thompson’s audit, which can be viewed at www.comptroller.nyc.gov, covered Fiscal Year 2007. The audit measured the reliability of the Notice of Violation data in the ECB computer systems, ensuring that the relevant data fields matched the required data type. The audit did not measure the accuracy of the violation that was issued and entered into the computer systems.

Thompson’s audit found that ECB NOV data exists in a secure environment with restricted access. Data in approximately 98.5 percent of the NOV records comply with specifications for information recorded in mandatory data fields that are used for adjudication, as well as for enforcement or collection. However, data in the remaining 1.5 percent of the NOV records, representing a total of $1.4 million in penalties for Fiscal Year 2007, were defective and therefore cannot be relied upon for adjudication and enforcement or collection. A NOV is considered defective if any or the following information is missing: designation of a respondent, designation of a date of the violation, designation of a place of occurrence of the violation, and designation of the violation (by brief written description and by statutory citation).

ECB creates and distributes monthly NOV error reports, which are reviewed by agencies as well as an internal ECB unit. Despite this review process, the aforementioned 1.5 percent of the NOV records, with penalties totaling $1.4 million for Fiscal Year 2007, did not contain sufficient information and were not resolved by the agencies or the ECB.

Thompson recommended that ECB should work with the Mayor’s Office of Operations and issuing agencies:

• To alleviate the issuance of defective violations by developing additional improvement strategies for NOV data quality, such as coordinating with issuing agencies in their establishment of training programs for NOV-issuing officers to ensure that all required information is included on the violation, and
• Establish a performance measurement tool to measure NOV data quality over time to assist ECB assessing the effectiveness of any implemented improvement initiatives for data quality.

###