New York, NY - February 26, 2020 – The Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) today announced Smart Audit as the winner of its annual Prize for Public Service Innovation, which celebrates creative solutions and public impact.

“We are proud to honor Smart Audit, a program that has helped resolve some of the State’s most crucial financial challenges,” said Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein. “By combining human element with data and technology, Smart Audit has found a way for our local government to better utilize our resources and save New York State money.”

Smart Audit, a data-driven program that invests in people, data, and technology to produce high-impact audits that save taxpayer dollars, improve government operations, and strengthen the finances of New York City and State.

Smart Audit is a part of a plan to maximize the impact of State Government Accountability (SGA), a Division within the Office of New York State Comptroller, that is responsible for auditing New York City and State government. Smart Audit achieves this by shifting SGA's business model from one focused on individual audits and traditional auditing methods to one that leverages data analytics. Additionally, it adds the key ingredient of staff engagement. While a simple idea, staff engagement has been difficult to execute in the government sector, and in particular within the audit community.

Smart Audit ensures that New York’s resources are spent as intended, and identifies when they are not. This allows improper payments to be recouped by auditees, and provides recommendations that, if implemented, can prevent such losses in the future. Over the past two years, utilizing Smart Audit, SGA has identified over $3 billion in improper payments, waste, fraud, and missed revenue. At a time when the State is facing serious financial challenges, these savings are more important than ever.

The CBC will present the Prize of Public Service Innovation award to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli at the annual dinner. A livestream will be available today beginning at 7:30pm at the following link: https://livestream.com/accounts/6302425/events/9014089.