The charges against Mr. Delayo include third-degree bribe-receiving and first-degree tampering with public records, both felonies for which he could face up to seven years in prison. Among the charges was the accusation that he had provided a copy of the crane operator’s exam to a crane company, for which an official involved in the case said Mr. Delayo was paid about $3,000. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, said Mr. Delayo also provided the answers.

As the chief inspector, Mr. Delayo had responsibility for overseeing the inspection of all cranes, including tower cranes, the type that collapsed in the two recent fatal accidents. The allegations against Mr. Delayo made it easy on Friday for him to be seen as a symbol for the failures that have plagued the Buildings Department for years. In fact, as he made his way to a cab after court, he was accosted by a street sweeper who dropped his broom and demanded to know if he felt responsible for the crane collapse. He did not answer.

Mr. Delayo, whose Legal Aid lawyer said little that could be heard during the arraignment, entered no plea during the proceeding before Judge Abraham Clott of Criminal Court. Mr. Delayo, appearing slightly hunched and wearing a white shirt with thin blue and brown stripes, held his pants up, apparently because he had no belt on. Later, as he left the building housing Mr. Morgenthau’s office, he wore a red bandanna as a makeshift belt.

Mayor Bloomberg, in a statement, said that he has “zero tolerance” for corruption anywhere in his administration, and that such conduct is “is all the more deplorable” in a public safety agency like the Buildings Department.

“The Department of Buildings has made enormous strides in rooting out corruption over the past six years, but this case underscores that there remains more work to do,” he said

Mr. Bloomberg, along with the City Council, on Wednesday announced a legislative package aimed at broadening oversight at building sites. But on Friday, the Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, who had said that the measures proposed by the mayor and the Council did not go far enough, called Mr. Delayo’s arrest “stunning and frightening.”

“The man in charge of issuing city licenses to crane operators has been accused of years of taking bribes to license cranes he did not inspect, and to license operators who did not pass a required test,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “Under the circumstances, before we begin any new procedures to implement the administration’s construction reforms, we must have a top-to-bottom review of the Buildings Department, its procedures and its personnel.”