Anatomy of an Audit

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State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli this week pointed to a breakdown in city government that added to nighttime noise — but the real problems go deeper. “Construction is reshaping the city’s skyline but the accompanying noise of construction activities isn’t always welcome by New Yorkers,” said DiNapoli. His release noted that noise complaints made to the city’s 311 system doubled from 14,259 in 2010 to 37,806 in 2015, with early-morning or latenight noise a particular problem.

His report fingers as a major cause the rising number of after-hours work permits issued by the Department of Buildings, which saw requests for those permits rise 89 percent from 2012 to 2015.

The Department of Environmental Protection handles noise complaints, he noted, but DOB doesn’t check with it before OK’ing or extending an after-hours permit. And DEP saw complaints rise 112 percent in that same 2012-15 span.

Until recently, DOB approved 99 percent of requests — nearly 60,000 OKs and just 431 rejections in 2015.

But the agency plainly noticed that DiNapoli was looking into the problem: It only approved 18,000 new after-hours noise permits last year.

To be clear, the report also slammed DEP: Its inspectors arrived an average of five days late to a site, and found “no excessive noise” in 84 percent of cases while often failing to record the relevant noise-meter readings.

Why? While, DEP didn’t have enough noise meters for each inspector. Says a DiNapoli spokesman: “By the end of our audit, DEP did purchase noise meters for all their inspectors.”

But it shouldn’t take investigators roaming the offices for a city agency to give employees the basic tools of the job.

Nor is it clear that the DOB permit slowdown was more than an effort to look like it had solved its problem. The city needs new construction, after all. Reducing night work means less noise as the neighbors sleep — but boosts risks to pedestrians and motorists near the site. Plus, daytime-only projects clog the area for longer.

At best, this audit got two agencies to do their jobs better — but the comptroller can’t bird-dog all of city government. That’s the job of the folks at City Hall.

Now that would be an interesting audit . . .