AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
February 16, 2016
San Antonio Fire Department New Building Fire Inspections
Follow-Up Audit
Report Issued December 9, 2015
Background
In August 2014, the Office of the City Auditor (OCA) completed an audit of the San Antonio Fire Department’s (SAFD) new building fire inspection process. The objective of the audit was to determine if controls over the SAFD new building fire inspection program were adequate to ensure appropriate and timely inspections.
At that time, OCA issued a report that found controls over the new building fire inspection process were not adequate. Control deficiencies were identified relating to performance measures and evaluations, inspection checklists and quality control reviews, inadequate technology, and lack of open communications with Development Services Department (DSD) building inspectors.
Audit Objective
Determine if the SAFD effectively implemented action plans in response to recommendations in our report issued August 2014.
Audit Scope & Methodology
The audit scope included recommendations made in the original report and corresponding action plans implemented between October 2014 and July 2015. We interviewed SAFD Fire Prevention Division management to obtain an understanding of the fire inspection process, management practices, related policies and procedures, and methods used to monitor performance. We also reviewed source documents such as Hansen reports, performance reports, and quality control review assessments.
Audit Conclusions
We determined that the SAFD has made progress implementing management action plans to address prior audit recommendations. We originally made four recommendations. SAFD has successfully implemented action plans for three of them, and one action plan involving the implementation of employee performance evaluations is still in progress. Specifically, we found that the SAFD had not completed the process of implementing employee performance evaluations. Consequently, we recommended that the Chief of the Fire Department continue to implement SAFD Fire Prevention Division employee performance evaluations.
SAFD management concurred with our recommendation and developed a positive corrective action plan.