We examined all elevator maintenance services payments at Buffalo State College for the period June 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008. We found the College did not have appropriate controls in place to ensure Otis and DCB performed all of the services required and billed for. As a result, Otis only provided 89 of 975 instances of the weekly preventive maintenance services required by the contract, and that 15 of the 39 elevators did not receive any elevator maintenance services during our scope. Since we could not determine the dollar value of each service visit, we used only the elevators that did not receive any preventive maintenance for the entire month, and calculated the College overpaid Otis $21,481 for the preventive maintenance services not performed. In addition, we found Otis overcharged the College $2,065 due to an incorrect rate increase and various billing errors. We also found DCB overcharged the College $1,067 for other elevator services, and the College did not have sufficient documentation to support $26,501 for total services billed by DCB. The College also failed to amend contract CMS0939 when adding and removing elevators as required by Procurement Bulletin G-197, and did not follow SUNY Purchasing/Contracting Guidelines when procuring elevator services from DCB.
For a complete copy of Report 2009-0333, click here.