Building Permits Data Testing and Analysis - 2017
Building Permits Data Testing and Analysis
Released February 2017
Download the Full Report here.
This report includes a correction of a previously published report, which can be found here.
We undertook this project to complete work originally planned for our Building Permits audit, released in June 2015 that we were unable to complete because we could not access permit data from Accela during the original audit. New analysis assesses data reliability and
red flags for staff conflicts of interest. In addition, we have corrected errors in our original analysis that resulted from records missing from the reports the Department of Planning and Community Development provided to us and from our misinterpretation of a provided date field. We have also extended analysis to include fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
Released February 2017
Download the Full Report here.
This report includes a correction of a previously published report, which can be found here.
We undertook this project to complete work originally planned for our Building Permits audit, released in June 2015 that we were unable to complete because we could not access permit data from Accela during the original audit. New analysis assesses data reliability and
red flags for staff conflicts of interest. In addition, we have corrected errors in our original analysis that resulted from records missing from the reports the Department of Planning and Community Development provided to us and from our misinterpretation of a provided date field. We have also extended analysis to include fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
We found:
- The time to issue general building permits in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 was faster than we had previously reported.
- However, the department missed its performance target or could not assess its performance for about 53% percent of general building permits in those years.
- Lack of accountability in data entry and inconsistent or incomplete data limit the value of reports to management.