By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — The Battery Park City Authority may change the way it does internal audits after a scathing report showed the authority had wasted over $300,000 on parties, lunches and chauffeurs.
Until recently, the authority’s internal audits were conducted by Roy Villafane, director of internal audit, and supervised by Lisa Miller, vice president of internal audit and compliance.
Both Villafane and Miller were criticized in a state Inspector General report last month for not clearly documenting a car and driver that former authority Chairman James Gill received as a perk. Villafane has since retired, but Miller remains at the authority.
During a meeting of the authority’s Audit Committee on Wednesday, the first since the IG’s report, board member David Cornstein asked whether the authority still had an internal auditor.
Miller replied that she was filling that role, but board member Robert Mueller interrupted, saying, "The answer is 'no.'"
"There seems to be a difference of opinion," Cornstein noted.
Mueller said the lack of internal accountability is "one of the reasons we’ve had this stuff to deal with.
"We really need an internal audit function."
Mueller said he is working with authority President Gayle Horwitz to formulate a new policy. The authority may hire an external firm to do the audits, board members said.
The authority already pays over $100,000 per year for accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP to perform annual audits and semiannual reviews, and the state comptroller oversees the authority’s books as well.
The authority makes a profit of tens of millions of dollars a year and manages a debt of about $1 billion.
Bill Thompson, chairman of the authority, said the Audit Committee would continue discussing the possibilities at its next meeting in January.
