Report: Near All of NY Tax Dept. Contracts Went to IT or Banking

A recently released report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli shows that the majority of the contracts made by state Department of Taxation and Finance went towards banking or information technology services. Auditors examining the department’s 81 contracts for personal and miscellaneous services found that more than 98 percent of them were devoted to either banking or information technology needs. The contracts, put together, totaled about $563 million.

The audit found that the IT contracts were partially to support the department’s own employees and partially to enact technological improvements. At the time of the audit, it was found that the department had a total of 619 full-time equivalent employees and 70 consultants assigned to its IT program. The audit found that the department had adequately justified these needs.

Banking was a little more difficult to justify, though. The department, said the report, contracts with banks to process the various types of taxes it collects. After reviewing the contracts, though, auditors found that while the department could support the need to contract out for these services in at least one of the contracts, it provided no documentation justifying its needs in four others.

“The services in these four contracts were necessary; however, it was not clear that the Department needed to contract out for the services,” said the report.