New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following audits have been issued during the week ending September 10, 2020. Click on the text highlighted in color to access the complete report.
State Departments and Agencies:
Department of Health (DOH): Improper Medicaid Payments for Recipients Diagnosed With Severe Malnutrition (Follow-Up) (2020-F-9) An audit issued in 2019 identified $416,237 in Medicaid overpayments on inpatient claims that contained a severe malnutrition diagnosis that the medical records did not appear to support. In a follow-up, auditors found DOH officials made some progress in addressing the problems identified in the initial audit report; however, additional action is needed. In particular, the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General had not taken action to review the Medicaid overpayments and make any recoveries.
Office of Mental Health (OMH): Oversight of Provider Consolidated Fiscal Reports – Independent Living Inc. (2019-S-60) OMH takes certain steps to ensure costs and other information reported by providers on their fiscal reports is accurate, documented, properly calculated and allowable. These steps include performing desk reviews that incorporate computer-assisted auditing techniques to identify areas for further review by an analyst. However, OMH generally does not perform detailed audits or field reviews of providers’ fiscal report information. There is a risk that conclusions drawn from any inaccurate data may not be as useful as they otherwise could be.
State University of New York at Stony Brook: Select Financial Management Practices at the Office of Transportation and Parking Operations (2018-S-11) Auditors identified control deficiencies over certain accounts, expenditures, and collections of revenues that jeopardize its ability to support operations. Three of the transportation and parking accounts have operated with a cash deficit balance for at least four consecutive years and $429,420 of the approximately $3.4 million in expenditures reviewed were not properly supported. Auditors also identified control deficiencies in the revenue collection process for the administration parking garage and metered parking accounts.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority - New York City Transit: Subway Wait Assessment (2019-S-62) Subway wait assessment is calculated at time points, which should consist of between 25 and 50 percent of all stops along each route. Auditors found that time points only cover between 11 and 30 percent of all stops on each route per direction. Therefore, the majority of the service provided is not captured in the wait calculation. The points did not include key subway stations such as Penn Station, 59th Street-Columbus Circle, and 14th Street.
New York City Department of Social Services: Controls Over Capital Improvements at City-Owned Homeless Shelters (2018-N-3) The Department of Homeless Services lacks the necessary controls over city-owned homeless shelter capital improvement projects to ensure urgently needed projects are properly prioritized and completed timely and within budget.
Office of Victim Services (OVS): Controls Over Selected Expenditures (Follow-Up) (2020-F-16) An audit issued in September 2018 found that OVS’ controls generally ensured that its expenditures for crime victim compensation claims, grants, and forensic rape examination (FRE) claims were made only to eligible victims and providers for eligible victim services. However, auditors identified minor discrepancies in OVS’ verification of FRE provider licenses and recommended they implement a risk-based approach to verify and validate provider licenses on submitted claims. In a follow-up, auditors found that OVS has implemented the recommendation from the initial report.
School districts:
Dryden Central School District – Cash Management (Tompkins County) District officials did not follow their investment policy. As a result, officials did not maximize interest earnings for the district. Auditors determined officials did not develop and manage a comprehensive investment program. Auditors also found officials did not seek competitive interest rates. Officials earned interest totaling $246,431 during the audit period, however, they could have earned an additional $614,606 if they used other available investment options.
Niagara Falls City School District – Out-of-District Tuition Billing (Niagara County) Tuition billings for district students enrolled in out-of-district programs were not always accurately calculated or properly supported. District officials overpaid two charter schools for 36 special education students by approximately $71,000 and may have overpaid for three students in foster care and three students in McKinney-Vento status by approximately $44,000. District officials were unable to properly monitor out-of-district tuition billings or ensure the billed amounts were accurate and proper because they did not obtain or retain adequate support documentation.
Municipal jurisdictions
County of Greene – Information Technology The county legislators did not monitor compliance with the county’s acceptable use policy, and did not adopt Information Technology (IT) policies. County legislators did not adopt a breach notification policy, a disaster recovery plan and a personal, private and sensitive information (PPSI) policy. In addition, county officials did not provide cyber security training to IT personnel and county employees. Sensitive information technology (IT) control weaknesses were communicated confidentially to officials.
Town of Oyster Bay – Financial Condition Management (Nassau County) The board and town officials need to continue to improve their management and oversight of the town’s financial condition. Three of the town’s funds have carried repeated fund balance deficits, while two other funds have accumulated unrestricted fund balances equal to at least 45 percent of the next year’s budgets and no reserve funds were established. In addition, the town has nearly $605 million in outstanding debt, which is significantly more than neighboring towns and requires 37 percent of the revenue of the funds servicing this debt. The also board did not develop and adopt several comprehensive written plans and policies, including a multiyear financial plan, fund balance policy and reserve policy.