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February 13, 2021

Municipal and school district audits issued during the week ending February 12, 2021

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following municipal and school district audits were issued during the week ending February 11, 2021.

Click on the text highlighted in color to access the complete audit report

MUNICIPAL AUDITS

Islip Fire District – Capital Assets (Suffolk County)District officials did not maintain accurate and consistent capital asset records to ensure district assets were monitored and safeguarded. District inventory records did not list 45 of 50 selected assets totaling $36,809. In addition, district officials were unable to locate seven of 50 assets totaling $7,360. Scuba gear worth $119,523 was not adequately monitored or safeguarded.

Islip Fire District – Disbursements (Suffolk County)The board made an inappropriate payment for medical expenditures totaling $21,000. The board also approved payment for 118 purchases totaling $38,563 made on district credit cards that did not have sufficient supporting documentation. In addition, the board approved payment for 58 fuel credit card transactions, consisting of 1,181 gallons of fuel totaling $2,551 that were not adequately supported. They did not always enforce the adopted travel policy when approving $125,028 in travel expenditures. District officials made 107 purchases totaling $163,233 without an approved purchase order prior to the purchase being made.

Kingston Housing Authority – Board Oversight (Ulster County) The board did not provide adequate oversight of authority operations. As a result, budgets were not entered into the financial system and financial transactions were not properly captured. Adequate oversight of disbursements, bank transfers and bank reconciliations were not achieved. Auditors determined $6.43 million in disbursements and bank transfers were made without review or approval and $1,035 in management fees were incorrectly billed. Financial system access was also not properly administered.

Town of Duanesburg – Financial Records and Reports (Schenectady County) The supervisor did not ensure that the town’s accounting records and reports were complete, accurate, up-to-date or timely. The town’s accounting records were also not reliable. Auditors determined $590,880 in revenue and $55,182 in expenditures were not recorded. The accounting records’ cash balances were overstated by about $3 million as of Dec. 31, 2019. In addition, bank reconciliations were not performed. The town board did not always receive financial reports, and reports it received were not accurate. 

 

SCHOOL DISTRICT AUDITS

Lyncourt Central School District – Information Technology (Onondaga County) District officials did not adequately manage network user accounts or develop and adopt a written disaster recovery plan. As a result, the district has an increased risk that it could lose important data and suffer serious interruption in operations. District officials should have disabled 17 of the 113 network user accounts auditors examined. The 17 user accounts were unneeded and included generic, shared and former employee accounts. District officials should have also revoked permissions for eight of the 12 network user accounts with administrative permissions because the permissions were unneeded. Sensitive information technology control weaknesses were communicated confidentially to officials.

 

CAUTION

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NYPPL Blogger Harvey Randall served as Principal Attorney, New York State Department of Civil Service; Director of Personnel, SUNY Central Administration; Director of Research, Governor’s Office of Employee Relations; and Staff Judge Advocate General, New York Guard. Consistent with the Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations, the material posted to this blog is presented with the understanding that neither the publisher nor NYPPL and, or, its staff and contributors are providing legal advice to the reader and in the event legal or other expert assistance is needed, the reader is urged to seek such advice from a knowledgeable professional.
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