Why? Because robust oversight keeps government honest and effective.
After the past four years, there is no question that the extraordinary team at DOI has the capacity, skill and courage to follow the facts wherever they lead — including to the sitting mayor and his or her senior advisors — and to work closely with prosecutors to ensure that our investigations result in criminal charges that make the public aware of misconduct and hold wrongdoers accountable.
DOI’s critical role in bringing the first charges in modern history against a sitting mayor made clear that DOI is truly independent of City Hall, even when the stakes are high. But the investigations of senior leadership came at a cost. They increased the distance between DOI and certain key players in City Hall (albeit appropriately under the circumstances) diminishing the opportunity for City Hall to be a full partner in our anti-corruption efforts. And these complex investigations consumed a substantial portion of our limited agency resources.
As the Mamdani administration seeks to govern “expansively and audaciously,” DOI should play an equally expansive and bold role. Effective oversight protects public funds and holds accountable officials who abuse their power for their own gain, improves public trust in government and ensures government services are equitably distributed to their intended recipients. An ambitious agenda for city government requires an ambitious agenda for oversight.
What should that look like? First, a true commitment to integrity and transparency must start at the top, with the mayor, deputy mayors and other senior City Hall staff. They must convey to commissioners, agency staff and the public that eradicating corruption is a top priority. They must cultivate a culture of compliance, where reporting potential corruption to DOI is required not just because it is legally mandated but because it contributes to the proper functioning of city government. And they must support full independent investigations of such reports and appropriate transparency when those investigations are complete, because transparency is the best way to increase public confidence in government.
Second, City Hall should seek DOI’s input in the development of policies and procedures to limit the risk of waste, fraud and abuse, particularly when implementing new programs that involve substantial expenditures of city funds. DOI has the experience and expertise to independently assess risk, identify gaps that make programs vulnerable to fraud, and propose a range of policy solutions for the administration’s consideration.
For large-scale, cost-intensive projects that would benefit from monitoring that exceeds DOI’s capacity, City Hall also should consider allocating funds for DOI to hire a third-party monitoring firm that can work under DOI’s supervision. DOI obtained funds for this purpose in the prior administration to oversee city expenditures to house and support asylum-seekers. As part of this proactive engagement with DOI, City Hall should play an active role in reviewing DOI’s policy and procedural recommendations to city agencies and determining if agencies need additional funds to implement them.
Third, DOI should be better resourced so that it can expand its proactive investigative efforts to identify and thwart waste, fraud and abuse, in addition to addressing allegations of historical corruption and fraud. DOI’s cases have yielded financial recoveries in the multi-millions to the city and to victims of crime; DOI should receive additional resources to facilitate proactive investigations to protect city funds and other assets before they are out the door.
City Hall should support budget independence for DOI, consistent with the preliminary proposals recently issued by the NYC Commission to Strengthen Local Democracy. And DOI also needs City Hall support to conduct such proactive investigations most effectively, and to gain full access to the vast stores of city records that reside in numerous siloed databases. With that data in hand, DOI can conduct data-driven inquiries, looking for patterns indicative of waste, fraud and abuse, and potentially stopping misconduct before it drains city resources.
The new administration has pledged to deliver “safety, affordability and abundance,” to New Yorkers. It must also embrace and support robust, independent oversight whose core mission is to improve the functioning of government for those it was elected to serve.
Strauber has been DOI commissioner since February 2022.
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