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Follow-Up on BACP Taxicab Medallion Auction and Safety Inspections

November 23, 2015

Summary

The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has completed a follow-up to its March 2015 audit of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection’s (BACP) administration of taxicab regulations in 2013.

Executive Summary

OIG concludes that BACP has implemented corrective actions related to three of the original four audit findings. Corrective action on the remaining finding remains premature because BACP has yet to take final action on medallion sales from the 2013 auction even though the bidding closed over 2 years ago.

OIG is unable to verify full compliance with all applicable rules and regulations of the auction process until all sales are finalized. The purpose of the March 2015 audit was to determine if BACP had an auction process that satisfied MCC § 9-112-480, inspected all taxicabs at least as often as required by MCC § 9-112- 050, and accurately tracked whether taxicabs found to have safety violations were brought in for inspection in a timely manner.

Our audit found that BACP:
• designed and implemented an auction process that should result in maximum revenue; however, OIG could not fully verify this because BACP had yet to finalize the 2013 medallion auction;
• inspected 99.5% of taxicabs in 2013 at least as often as required by the Municipal Code;
• did not employ inspection quality assurance best practices and did not conduct all brake tests in accordance with the standards of its Public Vehicle Safety Inspection Guide; and
• did not reliably track evidence of compliance with the two-day inspection reporting requirement following issuance of a Notification of Inspection.

Follow-Up on BACP Taxicab Medallion Auction and Safety Inspections - publication cover