LIU RELEASES ANNUAL AUDIT REPORT
Over Four Years, the NYC Comptroller's Audits Uncovered $1 Billion in Revenue, Savings, and Dubious Payments
NEW YORK, N.Y. – City Comptroller John C. Liu today announced that his Audit Bureau identified $200 million in savings and revenue for taxpayers in the 84 audits and special reports it issued in Fiscal Year 2013. The details were published in Comptroller Liu's annual Report to the Mayor and City Council on Audit Operations.
"Over the last four years our Audit Bureau has pursued the waste and mismanagement of taxpayer funds and sought improvements to help the City operate more efficiently," Comptroller Liu said. "We revealed City Hall's reliance on expensive outside consultants and its failure to monitor their work, helped expose the CityTime fraud, and forced the Economic Development Corporation to return $120 million it owed to taxpayers. New Yorkers' should be proud that in just four years, our Audit Bureau has uncovered nearly $1 billion that belongs to them. We owe a debt of gratitude for the hard work of our excellent Audit Bureau staff."
During Comptroller Liu's four years in office, the Audit Bureau has issued 329 audits and special reports that found $686.8 million in actual and potential revenues and savings, and have called into question $233.9 million associated with claims against the City.
In FY 2013, Comptroller Liu's audits pulled back the curtain on unsafe, unclean shelter conditions and questionable spending on a homeless services contractor, maintenance shortfalls and safety hazards at public pools and playgrounds, and one of the worst real estate deals in City history that allowed the Marriott Marquis to buy the Times Square plot it occupies for just $19.9 million.
Background
The Comptroller's Office releases a mandated annual report on the operations of the Audit Bureau that is to be released no later than March 1. This year the report is being released two months earlier than usual. The work of the Audit Bureau is subject to independent peer review every three years, and in 2010 and 2013, Comptroller Liu's Audit Bureau received strong commendations for its ability "to better add value to the operations of the City of New York."