NEW YORK, NY – Starting yesterday, the Offices of the New York State Inspector General (OIG) has begun publishing five years of previously unreleased letters sent to state agencies and authorities arising from investigations undertaken by the office. In addition to public reports and press releases, OIG regularly issues these advisory letters outlining the Inspector General's findings regarding allegations of corruption, fraud, criminal activity, and conflicts of interest or abuse that are referred to OIG, as well as the Office’s recommendations for reform. Spanning 2015-2019, this release includes over 200 letters involving 59 agencies and marks the publication of over 300 letters since Inspector General Lucy Lang took office.

The publication of these letters continues the Inspector General’s commitment to increasing confidence in state government by enhancing transparency into the work of OIG, an effort which also includes a commitment to publishing future letters contemporaneously with their delivery to the involved agency, and the recent launch of OIG’s first-ever publicly accessible dashboard on the New York State’s Open Data Portal.

“For the past year, my Office has focused on increasing transparency and confidence in state government by providing insight into the work we are doing to make New York safer and fairer for all,” said Inspector General Lang. “The release of these letters is yet another way to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the investigations we undertake, and to provide a reminder to those who work for and with the state that this office is watching. We are grateful to our agency partners for their cooperation and collaboration in rooting out misconduct and are gratified by the improvement that has taken place since these letters were issued.” 

The letters, some of which are redacted in part to protect the personal privacy of those involved, detail OIG investigations into allegations of time and attendance abuse, conflicts of interest, waste, misuse of state resources, unauthorized access to agency databases, mishandling of confidential information, theft and other criminal activity. The Inspector General has previously released letters from 2012-2014 and expects to release all other remaining unpublished letters by the conclusion of this calendar year.

The materials are now available on the “Newsroom” page of www.ig.ny.gov, and are searchable by year through the keyword function.