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September 12, 2014

Selected reports and information published by New York State's Comptroller


Selected reports and information published by New York State's Comptroller
Click on text highlighted in color  to access the full report

On Friday, September 12, 2014, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced that the following audits have been issued by his office:

Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS): Day Care Licensing (2013-S-66)

OCFS’s licensing and inspection activities assure licensed and registered child care facilities are in compliance with applicable laws and are safe for children. Although the office investigates complaints about unlicensed or unregistered child care providers, it does not have proactive measures in place to identify illegal child care providers and otherwise mitigate illegal operations.
An initial audit issued in March 2011 found DoE classified some students as discharged without sufficient documentation under state guidelines to support a discharge classification. By classifying them as discharged, DoE’s reported graduation rate was higher than the actual rate and the reported dropout rate was lower than actual. In a follow-up, auditors found DoE has made significant progress in addressing the issues identified in the initial report and has implemented the report’s three recommendations.

OGS’ implementation of the ReStacking initiative, aimed at decreasing the amount of leased property occupied by State agencies, was successful in achieving - and in fact exceeding – the cost savings expectations established by the SAGE commission and the Division of the Budget. OGS has achieved about $51 million in lease costs savings which, after adjusting for move costs that total about $18 million, resulted in about $33 million in net savings. However, OGS calculated cost savings separately from expenses and only accumulated costs on an agency by agency basis, not at a statewide level.
The Medicaid program, run by DOH, reimburses outpatient services through the use of the Ambulatory Patient Groups (APG) payment methodology, which is based on patient condition and complexity of service. Auditors found Medicaid made $1,083,836 in actual and potential APG claim overpayments. Of this amount, payments of $614,260 were made for the same medical procedure billed multiple times on the same date of service, and $469,576 was paid for rehabilitation services beyond the allowed limits. Medicaid also made questionable APG claim payments totaling $10,195,755 for dental clinic claims that were processed without sufficient scrutiny of the propriety or frequency of the services billed.

Cash advances are issued to state agencies for purposes such as petty cash, travel and other funding needs. Advances are issued from agency appropriations and the cash is transferred from the State Treasury to a local bank account for use by the agency. SED was authorized to have three advance accounts with a total value of $300,000 as of March 31, 2012. Auditors found SED no longer issues checks for travel advances and infrequently issues checks for petty cash expenses. However, SED does not routinely resolve old outstanding items or review any paid checks and consequently has no assurance that potentially improper or fraudulent transactions are detected.
In an initial audit report from January 2010, auditors found that the authority’s efforts were adequate to ensure fuel and food concessionaires pay full rent on time and make required capital improvements. Auditors also found some improvement opportunities and discovered that a fuel concessionaire under reported its fuel deliveries in one month tested, and as a result underpaid its rent for that month. In a follow-up, auditors found six of seven recommendations had been implemented while another was no longer applicable.
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NYPPL Blogger Harvey Randall served as Principal Attorney, New York State Department of Civil Service; Director of Personnel, SUNY Central Administration; Director of Research, Governor’s Office of Employee Relations; and Staff Judge Advocate General, New York Guard. Consistent with the Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations, the material posted to this blog is presented with the understanding that neither the publisher nor NYPPL and, or, its staff and contributors are providing legal advice to the reader and in the event legal or other expert assistance is needed, the reader is urged to seek such advice from a knowledgeable professional.
New York Public Personnel Law. Email: publications@nycap.rr.com