Imperial Parking – Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors - Year 2!9· MIAMIBEACH
BUDGET AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
Internal Audit Division INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT
TO:
VIA:
FROM:
DATE:
AUDIT:
PERIOD:
Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
Kathie G. Brooks, Budget and~ Prfo mance Improvement Director
James J. Sutter, Internal Audito ;~
October 25, 2011
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants
Supervisors -Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
Contract year starting on August 11, 2009 through August 10, 2010
and ,fj?
This report is the result of a regularly scheduled operational and compliance audit of the
professional service agreement between Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. and the City to provide
cashiers, attendants, and supervisors for the City's parking system. The agreement requires an
annual evaluation of the performance of the services rendered and a review the profitability of
the agreement. This audit encompasses year two of the agreement.
INTRODUCTION
The City of Miami Beach Parking Department is responsible for managing more than 11 ,500 on-
street parking spaces, eight (9) garages, and sixty-four (64) surface parking lots. Surface lots
are often attended by cashiers, supervisors, and traffic personnel during special events to
improve the incidence of parking violations and minimize any adverse impact on the demand for
parking. Oversight for the garages and attended surface lots is provided by the Off-Street
Division, and includes responsibility for the administration of the contracted provision of
cashiers, attendants, and supervisors to the City's parking system.
On June 25, 2008 the Mayor and Commission, through Resolution No. 2008-26839, approved
and authorized the execution of the agreement with Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc, pursuant to
Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 11-07/08, to provide parking cashiers, attendants, and
supervisors for the City of Miami Beach parking system. The agreement was executed on July
30, 2008. The term of the agreement is three (3) years, commencing on August 11, 2008 and
ending on August 10, 2011, with two (2) one-year renewal options at the City's sole discretion.
A provision was added requiring that an annual performance evaluation and the review of the
profitability of the agreement for revenue sharing purposes.
At the May 13, 2009 Commission meeting, the Mayor and City Commission authorized the
administration to issue a subsequent Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 41-08/09, to provide
these services based on concerns regarding performance and cost. At the February 3, 2010
Commission meeting, the Mayor and City Commission rejected all bids under RFP 41-08/09
and authorized the administration to issue a new RFP using the "Cost Plus" and to continue the
contract with Imperial Parking but to negotiate an amendment to the contract to change the
rates. At its February 9, 2011 meeting, the Mayor and City Commission authorized the
Administration to issue a new Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 17-10/11 for Parking Attendants
for the City's Parking Garages.
The City Manager presented his recommendation at the May 11, 2011 Commission meeting
and the City Mayor and Commission accepted the City Manager's recommendation and
We are committed to providing excellent public service and safety to all who live, work, and play in our vibrant, tropical, historic community.
Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
authorized the administration, through the issuance of Resolution No. 2011-27658 to enter into
negotiations with the top ranked firm, Standard Parking which replaced Imperial Parking on
August 15, 2011.
Among other duties, Imperial Parking's employees are responsible for collecting and reconciling
revenue generated by the parking facilities on a daily basis, completing and providing to the City
all related supporting documentation and reports, as well as providing excellent customer
service and guidance and reporting maintenance issues to the Parking Department, etc ..
Invoices are submitted by Imperial Parking to the Parking Department based on the hours
worked by each employee, in each position classification, and in each parking facility.
Contractor hourly billing rates are $13.88 per hour for parking attendants/cashiers, and $16.77
per hour for supervisors. These rates consider Contractor's employee wages and overhead.
Hours to be worked by employees in each position are determined by the Off-Street Parking
Division management on a weekly basis considering the optimal and most efficient level of
employees required to operate the parking facilities. Invoiced hours are then compared to hours
requested accordingly. Any exceptions, if any, are then communicated to the Contractor for
correction prior to processing payment.
The following schedule reflects the total actual payments made to the Contractor, per the City's
general ledger, associated with the service agreement as of August 10, 2010:
7TH STREET GARAGE $ 379,765 $ 318,076
ANCHOR GARAGE $ 307,047 $ 260,121
ALL OTHERS (1) $ 2,691,019 $ 1,716,754
GRAND TOTAL $ 3,377,831 $ 2,294,951
(1): "ALL OTHERS" represent four garages, and all City attended
lots, as needed for, but not limited to, special events.
OVERALL OPINION
Although the Contractor, Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc, has complied satisfactorily with prov1s1ons
stipulated in the service agreement (Provided all employees with proper uniforms, complied with
the living wage ordinance, prepared timely billings to the City, performed the daily revenue
collection, provided all appropriate supporting records and reports for the daily revenues
collected, etc.), results from testing performed to reasonably assure compliance to all
provisions of the agreement, stipulated policies and procedures, and to the Contractor's
responsibility identified the following areas in need of immediate improvement and/or corrective
action:
• Original certificates of insurance were not submitted to the City's Risk Manager for
approval and for substantiation of continuity, as required by the Professional Service
Agreement.
• Recruitment practices stipulated on the Contractor's proposal and/or required on the
Service Agreement were not performed accordingly.
• Corrections and irregularities as a result of time tracking equipment limitations were
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
processed without proper approval, initials, name and signature of supervisors from the
City and the Service Provider.
• Documents and records to substantiate the Contractor's profitability for the purpose of
revenue sharing were not readily available and did not fully support those amounts
presented.
Despite the results from our inquiries, Internal Audit identified areas in need of improvement,
preventing current service levels to meet the City's expected service levels. The areas
identified included the following:
• Inability to provide a daily attendance of at least 90% of the scheduled cashier,
attendant, and or supervisor hours at each facility by the Contractor, while corresponding
liquidated damages are not being assessed by the Parking Department.
• Procedural departures and customer service improvement opportunities were identified
as a result of conducted field visits.
Additional details regarding all of the above mentioned areas in need of improvement and/or
corrections have been provided on the Findings, Recommendations, and Management
Responses section of this report.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this audit is to review the overall operations and determine compliance with the
professional services agreement between the City of Miami Beach and Imperial Parking to
provide parking cashiers, attendants, and supervisors for the City's parking system, as well as
to evaluate the Contractor's performance in providing such services effectively and efficiently.
SCOPE
1. Ensure compliance to key provisions of the service agreement and the RFP.
2. Verify that sufficient controls exist to reasonably assure the reliability, accuracy, and
accountability of all revenues collected.
3. Verify reasonable reliability and accuracy of invoices to the City from the Contractor.
4. Verify that employee files are current and complete.
5. Confirm that policies and procedures are complete, known, and consistently followed by all
personnel.
6. Review adequacy and number of personnel used for the daily operations.
7. Evaluate the overall performance of the Contractor throughout the contract year.
FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND MANAGEMENT RESPONSES
In order to better identify and differentiate findings and recommendations related to the
performance of the Contractor from those involving the overall operation and compliance, audit
findings have been grouped in two main categories on this report as follows:
I. Operation, Compliance and Review of Profitability
II. Performance Evaluation
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
I. OPERATION, COMPLIANCE AND REVIEW OF PROFITABILITY
1. Finding -Original certificates of insurance were not submitted to the City's Risk Manager
for approval and for substantiation of continuity, as required by the Professional
Service Agreement.
Although Internal Audit was able to confirm that the Contractor did, maintain insurance
coverage in full force, as required by the Service Agreement, no original copies of the
insurance policy and/or the certificate of insurance were provided to the City's Risk
Management Office for verification, approval, and to be filed with the City's Risk Manager
Office, as required by Section 4.6 of the Service Agreement. Instead, copies of the
Certificate of Insurance were forwarded five months late after renewal to the Parking
Department, but neither the contractor, nor the Parking Department forwarded the
certificate to the City's Risk Manager for review and approval.
Recommendation(s)
Original certificates of insurance should be provided to the City's Parking Department to
be submitted to the City's Risk Manager for approval every time insurance policies are
renewed, revised, and/or an insurer is changed. This not only helps to ensure the
continuity of coverage, but also compliance with the requirements established in the
Service Agreement. In addition, an approved copy, signed and dated by the Risk
Manager should be maintained by the Parking Department, as a backup, along with the
Service Agreement documents.
City's Response
The City has since received and approved the certificate of insurance as required by the
PSA.
Contractor's Response
Original certificates of insurance should have been provided both to the City's Parking
Department and to the City's Risk Manager for review and approval. As these insurance
policies are renewed, revised, and/or an insurer is changed, both parties noted above will
be copied.
2. Finding -Recruitment practices stipulated on the Contractor's proposal and/or required on
the Service Agreement were not performed accordingly.
Section 2, page 4 of the Professional Service agreement stipulates that the "Contractor will
provide for individual honesty tests for its employees during its hiring process, and as may
be required by the City from time to time". It further describes that "the Contractor shall
provide any and all services, as set forth in the proposal documents". With this in mind,
the "Recruitment" section of the Contractor's proposal identifies a series of employment
guidelines that were to be applied in order to attain the Contractor's goal of customer
service excellence. These employment guidelines included:
• Job Posting
• Outside Recruiting
• Applicant Tracking System
• Interviews
• Testing I Assessment (math and customer service examinations)
• Background and Reference Checks
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
• Job Offer
• Record Keeping
In order to verify the application of the aforementioned guidelines, Internal Audit randomly
sampled thirty-six (36) lmpark employee files for review. All of the employees sampled
were hired during our audit period (the second year of the contract). Results from our
review showed that none of the new employee files reviewed included copies of any
testing (honesty test, math and customer service tests) performed or official results from
the same. Additional inquiries with lmpark management personnel confirmed that honesty
tests, math tests, and customer service tests, as stipulated on the Service Agreement and
the Contractor's proposal accordingly, are not being administered to new employees. No
additional documentation was observed that would reflect results from training and/or any
other form of evaluation done to these employees as required by the Service Agreement.
The same was observed during our previous audit to which the contractor responded that:
"As a condition of our taking on this contract, we were required to absorb the
majority of the prior operators existing employees. Therefore, initially we did
not administer several tests that might exclude a number of new applicants, in
order to maximize the number of existing employees that would maintain their
employment status. To clarify, we are currently performing background
investigation checks on each new hire. The honesty testing the auditor
mentions we believe refers to psychological testing of each applicant.
When hiring, customer service skills/tendencies are evaluated during the
interview process and then if the individual is hired, again during the
classroom training portion of the new hire process. As for mathematical ability
(addition and subtraction) this is covered during basic cashier training, which
is not charged to the City. Should a new hire show a lack of mathematical
aptitude during this training, they are transitioned to a role as a traffic
coordinator".
Furthermore, employee information was decentralized making it hard to verify the
completeness, sufficiency of documentation, and compliance with guidelines of the
Service Agreement. Examples of documents not included in the employee files consist of,
CPR certifications, which according to contractor personnel were sometimes kept
separately by the Contract Manager. Also background checks were kept separately from
the employee files.
Recommendation( s)
The Contractor should implement the administration of all applicable examinations to all
new hire employees according to the Service Agreement and the Contractor's Proposal.
These examinations should assist in evaluating the ability of the employee to maintain
good accountability, customer service, and ethical values while performing his/her duties
on the field. Moreover, employee files should be centralized to facilitate the verification of
its completeness and compliance to the Service Agreement.
City's Response
Agreed.
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
Contractor's Response
Our Human Resources Coordinator is in the process of implementing applicable pre-
employment examinations, such as a basic math skills test (for cashier candidates). In
addition, although a customer service test is being facilitated for every employee, after
customer service training has been provided, this will be moved to the pre-employment
process to go along with the basic math test. Once those two items are implemented, we
will look into introducing the honesty tests.
With respect to the decentralization of employee files, Our Human Resource Coordinator
has undergone a process to better centralize the files in our Brickell office and consolidate
the paperwork into single employee files.
4. Finding -Corrections and irregularities as a result of time tracking equipment limitations
were processed without proper approval of supervisors from the City and the
Service Provider.
Tests performed on two hundred fifty-nine (259) sampled time sheets from three randomly
sampled invoices, confirmed that eighteen (18) out of the two hundred fifty-nine (259)
sampled time sheets or 6.95% showed corrections and/or irregularities possibly due to
time tracking equipment limitations that were processed without proper approval, initials,
name, and signature of a supervisor from Imperial Parking and the City. Most of the
corrections observed were related to the 1 ih Street Garage, which is a facility used as a
hub for assigning contractor personnel to multiple attended surface lots.
Last year's audit found similar deficiencies to which the Service Provider responded
stating that "the issue with the limitation on over 100 employees being tracked by the time
and attendance system (per facility) is a concern only once a year, during the boat show,
at the G5 garage. We are able to appropriately work around this once a year issue".
However, our observations occurred at different times during the year and not during the
boat show event.
Recommendation(s):
Time tracking devices should be upgraded by the contractor to meet the demands and
nature of the day to day operations in order to accommodate more than one hundred (1 00)
employees. Also, it should be able to record hours worked involving different payroll
periods without incidents. Corrections or irregularities noted on the time sheets should be
researched and signed by both, a Service Provider Supervisor and a City Supervisor prior
to approval for payment.
City's Response
Agreed. The Contractor has assigned their employees to various facilities for time
recordation purposes to ensure that no one facility exceeds the time clock capacity of one
hundred (1 00) employees.
Contractor's Response
The number of incidences that involve the existing time and attendance system not
accommodating over 100 employees simultaneously is once time per year during the
annual boat show. However the cost to upgrade to a more robust system is not, and this
facet, as well as the ability record varying payroll periods, should be a consideration in an
extension to the contract or a future contract. We are currently able to appropriately work
around this one time issue.
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
Internal Audit Observation
Effective with the new contractor, these items have been sufficiently addressed.
5. Finding -Documents and records to substantiate the Contractor's profitability were not
available and did not fully support amounts previously presented.
Section 4.9.3 of the Service Agreement stipulates that "Contractor and City hereby agree
and acknowledge to share equally in any excess revenues over and above Contractor's
"Base Estimated Profit" over the initial three (3) year term of this agreemenf'. It further
mentions that "at the end of each contract year during the term of this Agreement, the City
and Contractor agree to meet to review the profitability of the contract, which shall include
the City's review of all necessary documents and records to substantiate such profitability''.
During our previous audit of the first contract year, the contractor was able to reasonably
substantiate 87% (as a percentage of total expenses for the contract year) of the incurred
expenses during the first contract year. However, 13% (as a percentage of total expenses
for the contract year) of the incurred expenses were not sufficiently substantiated to
reasonably assess their accuracy and reliability. As per the contractor, one important
reason was system limitations that although allow to maintain full accountability by regions
(Organizations under contract in the Miami-Dade County vicinities), it does not maintain a
separate sub-ledger for locations or "lots", which is the term used by the contractor to
identify different contracts in a region.
Similarly, Internal Audit requested a copy of a Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Income
Statement (P & L), and detailed General Ledger reflecting transactions taking place during
our audit period (second contract year) in order to verify the Service Provider's profitability,
in accordance to the Request for Proposal.
On October 8, 2010, subsequent to our follow up, internal audit received a summary of
operating revenue and expenses for the second contract year. After two additional
requests documentation was made available on December 14, 2010 to Internal Audit for
review. Based on the information and documents initially provided by the Contractor, the
net operating income during the second contract year was $48,249 before vehicle
depreciation.
Results from our review showed that although the contractor was able to reasonably
substantiate the same percentage as for the previous contract year of 87% (as a
percentage of total expenses for the contract year) of the incurred expenses during the
second contract year, 13% (as a percentage of total expenses for the contract year) of the
incurred expenses were not sufficiently substantiated to reasonably assess their accuracy
and reliability. As previously stated in last year's audit by the Contractor, system limitations
exist that although allow to maintain full accountability by regions (Organizations under
contract in the Miami-Dade County vicinities), it does not maintain a separate sub-ledger
for locations or "lots", which is the term used by the contractor to identify different
contracts in a region.
Other reasonable expenses included in the 13% of expenses not sufficiently substantiated
may have been incurred as of the City's operations (Example: Unemployment Taxes).
However, no documentation was provided to substantiate any allocations or quantify them.
Not sufficiently substantiating the incurred expenses represents a departure from
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
compliance with section 4.9.3 of the agreement. Furthermore, it prevented Internal Audit
from reasonably verifying whether or not the profit threshold, as stipulated on the
agreement, was exceeded.
Recommendation(s)
As recommended in our previous audit, the Contractor should create a sub-ledger and or
similar detailed reports that would identify those transactions generated as a result from
operations at the City of Miami Beach municipal parking facilities only. In addition, they
should maintain appropriate schedules and corresponding support that would detail any
prorated and/or allocated portion of expenses to the City, as well as corresponding
calculations. This documentation should be presented to the City so that it could be
verified upon request. Lastly, the contractor should fully document all incurred expenses
during the contract year in order to comply with section 4.9.3 of the agreement.
City's Response
Agreed.
Contractor's Response
As outlined during the last audit, our existing GL does not provide for a sub-ledger by
location as requested. Detail concerning all purchase of supplies procured for and used at
the City of Miami Beaches parking operations has been provided. A detail of expenses,
which allows for the City to accurately verify actual net profit figures for the operation, has
been submitted.
Internal Audit Observation
While the contractor contends that modification of their accounting system is not plausible,
we feel that their records should at least contain sufficient documentation, whether manual
or automated, to substantiate any allocations used. In addition, we disagree with the
contractor's response that records submitted were sufficient to accurately verify net profit
amounts. Some allocated costs (Example: vehicle insurance, general liability insurance,
unemployment taxes, "employee burden" wages, among the most significant ones) were
not fully and/or sufficiently substantiated by the contractor.
II. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Although the Parking Department is responsible for completing an annual performance
evaluation of Imperial Parking's services, the following areas were identified during our
audit in need of corrective action regarding the performance of the services provided.
6. Finding -Inability to provide a daily attendance of at least 90% of the scheduled cashier,
attendant, and or supervisor hours at each facility by the Contractor.
Section II, D of Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 11-07/08 establishes performance
standards to be considered for the evaluation of the services carried out by the Contractor.
Paragraph one (1) of this section mentions that "failure to maintain a daily attendance
record of 90% of the scheduled cashiers, attendants, and/or supervisors at each
respective facility shall be deemed as non-performance on the part of the successful
Proposer, and shall be subject to a penalty consistent with the dollar value of the duration
of time that the employee(s) were absent or $100.00, whichever is greater, as liquidated
damages. The value shall be based on the hourly rate assessed to the City. This formula
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
is based on reduced service levels that the City must absorb by compensating with the
reallocation of labor from other duties and/or facilities".
As a result of prior year's audit, a data filter was incorporated into the system software
used by the Off-Street Division of the Parking Department to track and identify instances
where hours provided by the Service Provider employees were less than 90% of those
requested. However, instead of identifying such circumstances by type of position (Ex:
Supervisor, Attendant, etc.) and by facility, it identifies them by facility overall without
position distinction. Consequently, liquidated damages, as described on the Request For
Proposal (RFP), are difficult to calculate considering that no distinction is made among
positions with different hourly rates. Furthermore, this method deviates from the
requirements of the Request For Proposal (RFP), as described above, requiring at least
90% of scheduled cashiers, attendants, and/or supervisors and is less rigorous to the
Service provider.
Along with the shortcomings in the method used to identify circumstances where hours
provided by employees of the Service Provider were less than 90% of those requested,
the Off-Street division was able to identify 175 occurrences during our audit period
(second contract year) using the current, less rigorous method. Despite the occurrences
identified, no liquidated damages were calculated and/or assessed to the Service Provider
during the contract year in contradiction to the Request For Proposal Requirements.
Recommendation( s)
The Off-Street Division of the Parking Department should make appropriate corrections to
the current method used to identify instances where less than 90% of requested position
hours are provided. A distinction between positions should be made, as required by the
Request For Proposal (RFP), which in turns would make the calculation of liquidated
damages easier for the Off-Street Division.
In addition, once an occurrence where less than 90% of requested coverage is identified,
corresponding liquidated damages should be calculated and assessed to the Service
Provider upon discovery. At the same time, appropriate action should be taken by the
Service Provider to prevent providing less than requested hours in the future.
City's Response
The Off-Street Payroll Hours Reconciliation Software has been upgraded to provide an
exception report noting the 90% variance. Additionally, this is also tracked and included in
their annual evaluation.
Contractor's Response
After further review of the Garage Labor Contract Time Management system, otherwise
known as GL TM, it states 1m park's global average to be 105.37% for the audited period
which indicates lmpark has provided 5.37% more hours than originally scheduled due to
filling last minute requests for additional shifts. Furthermore, upon closer inspection of the
occurrences that resulted in a less than 90% score for daily attendance, we found
occurrences where CMB has requested we send our staff home. For example, on Jan 10,
2010 at the G1 garage, according to the GLTM we filled 89.46% of the daily hours,
however it should be noted that CMB requested the staff be sent home due to poor
weather and no business. In speaking with our operations team, the sending home of staff
is a frequent cost savings measure the CMB utilizes to keep costs in line, however it is not
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
accurately reflected in the GL TM nor when calculating our daily attendance score.
In summary, as mentioned last year there is no benefit to the contractor under this billed
labor rate structure to not staff all available hours/schedules, as the contractors profitability
is embedded in the hourly rate charged to the City. If such hours are not worked, then
those potential billed hours and the profitability derived to be from them is also not
collected by the contractor. Therefore we feel this finding requires further review before a
final grade be assessed against the contractor.
Internal Audit Observation
Although Internal Audit understand that it is in the best financial interest for the Contractor
to staff all requested hours by the City's Parking Department, the referenced contract
provision was incorporated to ensure that an optimal service level is provided at all times
and at all City Parking Facilities.
7. Finding -Procedural departures and customer service improvement opportunities were
identified as a result of conducted field visits.
Results from site visits performed on January 31st, February 12th and 15th, March 28th, and
September 11 1h of 2010 to different parking facilities in the City showed that Contractor
employees complied with most stipulated requirements and procedures including the
proper use of uniforms, proper documentation of vehicle license plate number on tickets,
and proper completion of required reports.
However, some procedural departures and areas for customer service improvements were
noted and identified as follows:
• Violations observed on the surface lot were not effectively and timely
communicated to the City's On-Street Parking Enforcement Division for
corrective action. This was observed on all five (5) visits performed to surface
lots.
• Surface lot capacity was not consistently and periodically monitored resulting in
tickets sold over capacity. This was observed in one (1) out of the five (5) visits
performed to surface lots.
• A ticket book was provided to the seller without requiring the seller's signature on
the ticket book distribution log departing from established policies and
procedures. This was observed on one (1) out of the five (5) visits performed.
• Insufficient strategic planning, analysis, and contingency options were exercised
and considered to ensure proper controls on vehicular traffic flow preventing
traffic jams etc. This was observed in one (1) out of five (5) visits performed to
surface lots.
• Customers were not greeted and informed, upon arrival, about the importance of
maintaining the purchased ticket visible on the vehicle's dashboard. This was
observed on all of the five (5) visits performed to surface lots.
• Customers were not greeted on first contact. This was observed on all of the five
visits performed to parking garages.
Recommendation(s)
Exceptional customer service is one of the City's main objectives and priorities.
Accordingly, proper training and supervision should be exercised by the Contractor in
order to ensure a consistent application of the same. Also, the contractor should ensure,
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Internal Audit Report
Imperial Parking (U.S.), Inc. -Agreement to Provide Cashiers, Attendants and Supervisors -
Operational and Compliance Audit and Performance Evaluation
October 25, 2011
and verify from time to time the overall knowledge of policies, procedures, and regulations
of the City.
City's Response
Agreed.
Contractor's Response
Understanding that the City of Miami Beach has as one of its main priorities
community/customer service, lmpark has held meetings to re-emphasize such through
both our on-site HR Coordinator and our Sr. Management staff serving the City of Miami
Beach operations.
EXIT CONFERENCE
Findings were forwarded to the City's Parking Department and the Contractor Offices to solicit
further discussion and management responses. Management responses were received
thereafter.
Audit performed by Fidel Miranda, Auditor
F:\OBPI\$AUD\INTERNAL AUDIT FILES\DOC09-1 0\REPORTS-FINAL \Imperial Parking Contract for Cashiers (201 O).docx
cc: Jorge Gomez, Assistant City Manager
Saul Frances, Parking Department Director
Charles Adams, Assistant Parking Director
Christopher Johnson, Senior Vice President Imperial Parking
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