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Boston Globe - Audit finds 30% of elevator inspections past due
By John M. Guilfoil - 5/14/2010

State Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci has again called for increased staffing at the Department of Public Safety after a routine audit found that nearly a third of elevators in the state have expired inspection certificates.

In the review of 37,494 elevators, conducted between July 2008 and April 2009, DeNucci’s staff found that 11,419 had outdated inspection certificates, ranging from one to four years beyond the expiration date.

But inspecting tens of thousands of elevators requires more funding for more staff, public safety officials said in response to the audit.

“You need staff to inspect elevators,’’ said Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, which oversees the Department of Public Safety.

Harris said the department recently brought on two additional elevator inspectors, but the department does not have the budget to hire what DeNucci’s office says might be more than 13 additional inspectors needed to fill the backlog.

“The backlog of elevator inspection certificates has been an ongoing problem for the Department of Public Safety. The backlog is due largely to the fact that there are simply not enough elevator inspectors to perform all of the necessary inspections,’’ Harris said. “It’s a resource issue.’’

The department has 41 elevator inspectors and would need several more to keep up with the inspections, Harris said.

DeNucci, in a written statement yesterday, said he was mindful of the economy and budget constraints, but he stressed that elevator inspections are a source of revenue for the state. The state, by not inspecting elevators in a timely manner, has lost about $6.5 million, he said.

Harris said the changing definition of the word “elevator’’ has exacerbated the backlog. The state also has to inspect escalators, people movers, dumbwaiters, and wheelchair lifts as “elevators.’’

An inspection costs $400, which goes unpaid if it is not carried out. Over a one-year period, DeNucci said, this cost the state $2.2 million, and an additional $4.3 million when factoring in elevators that had not been inspected for several years.

The results nearly mirror DeNucci’s 2004 audit report, in which he found that 13,481 of 32,800 elevators went uninspected.

“It’s a simple issue, but it’s an important issue, because we all use elevators,’’ said Glenn Briere, a spokesman for DeNucci’s office. “Hopefully, correcting this problem will be a high priority.’’

In 1995, the Globe published a three-part series that determined that almost 40 percent of the state’s elevators and escalators were not being inspected and that three state elevator inspectors missed an average of 157 days of work each that year. The series prompted Governor William F. Weld to promise a series of overhauls to the Public Safety Department’s inspections system.