State Liquor Authority

Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control: Oversight of Wholesalers' Compliance with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law (Follow-Up Report)

In New York State, the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages is regulated by the State Liquor Authority, a three-member Board of Commissioners that is supported by the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. In audit 2005-S-33, we examined the actions taken by the Division in overseeing wholesalers, and found that a number of improvements were needed. For example, the Division did not make its regulatory bulletins readily available for reference, relied on complaints rather than active monitoring to identify violations, generally did not follow up to ensure that previously identified violations had been corrected, and did not always adequately document the reasons why investigations were handled the way they were. We recommended various improvements in the Division’s practices and procedures. When we followed up on these matters with Division officials, we found they had made some progress in addressing the problems identified by our audit, but additional actions were still needed.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-F-16 click here.