Summary

Florida law provides that an amusement ride may not be operated without a current annual permit, and in order for an operator to obtain a current annual permit, the amusement ride must be inspected by the Department. Responsibility for the performance of amusement ride inspections has been assigned to the Division of Standards, Bureau of Fair Rides Inspections, and during the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the Bureau performed 9,990 inspections.

Based on a review of Bureau inspection schedules, inspection reports, and annual permit records, we found that inspections were generally performed in a timely manner and that annual permits were issued only upon the completion of the required inspections. Our tests and analyses did disclose some areas where improvements could be made. Those areas are described below.

• Inspections data, depicting a typical year’s workload, indicate that relatively little inspection activity occurs during the months of May, June, July, August, and September. During these months, inspector time was often charged to "headquarters." To more productively use the Bureau’s inspectors, the Department should consider cross-training its fair ride inspectors so they may, as their schedules permit, provide assistance in completing the inspection-related tasks of other programs.

• Some local governments may be performing fair ride inspections, thereby duplicating the Bureau’s efforts. We recommend the Department survey all ride operators in an effort to identify local governments which may be administering fair ride inspections. The information obtained should be used to evaluate whether it may be advantageous to seek legislative action authorizing the delegation of fair ride inspections to qualified local governments.

• Revenue processing controls at the Bureau level were inadequate. Revenues relating to fair ride inspection activities totaled $971,000.

The Commissioner of Agriculture's written response to the audit findings and recommendations in audit report No. 02-054 can be viewed as a part of the complete report filed on this Auditor General web site.