Audits and reports issued by the New York State Comptroller during the week ending June 23, 2022

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following audits have been issued during the week ending June 23, 2022:

Click on the text highlighted in colorto access the complete audit report.

School District Audits

Brookhaven-Comsewogue Union Free School District – Extra-Classroom Activity (ECA) Funds (2021M-181)  

Unapproved ECA clubs were operating in the district and officials did not establish an adequate accounting system for the district’s funds. As a result, district officials cannot ensure that collections are properly collected, submitted, and deposited, and disbursements are for valid purposes. As a result, 72 of 90 transactions tested totaling $321,554 were not properly accounted for. Officials did not ensure collections and disbursements were always supported or that nine of the 38 deposits tested totaling $12,635 were deposited timely.

East Moriches Union Free School District – Financial Condition Management (2022M-1)  

District officials overestimated appropriations, which made it appear that the district needed to increase taxes and use appropriated fund balance to close projected budget gaps, but the appropriated fund balance was not used to finance operations. The surplus fund balance has continuously grown over the past five fiscal years. As of June 30, 2021, it was over $7.1 million, or 24.3% of the next year’s budget, exceeding the 4% statutory limit. The district’s budgeted appropriations from 2016-17 through 2020-21 exceeded actual expenditures by $6.3 million, or 4.5%. Officials did not use the retirement contribution reserve to pay annual retirement contributions. Its excessive balance is enough to cover annual retirement contributions for nine years.

 

Franklin Central School District – Information Technology (2022M-19)  

District officials did not adequately manage network user accounts, periodically compare installed software to an authorized software inventory or develop an IT contingency plan. Nine of the district’s network user accounts (8%) were not needed. This created additional network entry points that, if accessed by attackers, could be used to inappropriately access, and view sensitive information and compromise IT resources. District staff did not have sufficient documented guidance or plans to follow to recover data and resume essential operations in a timely manner.

Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District – Information Technology User Accounts (2021M-209)  

District officials did not adequately manage non-student network user accounts to ensure unnecessary accounts were disabled. Specifically, district officials did not establish comprehensive written procedures to periodically review all network user accounts, identify unnecessary network user accounts, and notify the IT vendor to disable them. Nine former employees’ user accounts and 120 unneeded generic user accounts were not disabled on the network.

 

Valhalla Union Free School District – Network User Accounts (2022M-26)  

District officials did not adequately manage the district’s network user accounts to help prevent unauthorized use, access and/or loss. Auditors found district officials should have disabled 67 unneeded network user accounts. These unnecessary accounts had last log-on dates ranging from Jan. 3, 2012, to Sept. 3, 2021, and account for 15% of the district’s network user accounts.

 

 Municipal Audits

Town of Charlton – Procurement (2022M-5)  

Town officials did not always seek competition when procuring goods and services. Town officials made 17 purchases totaling $67,808 without seeking competition and spent $4,820 on snowplow blades and shoes but could have saved town taxpayers $2,244, if purchased off the state contract. The town also did not always retain copies of other government contracts used to procure goods and services.

 

Village of Hagaman – Claims Auditing (2022M-11)  

Claims were not properly audited and approved before payment. The board did not date their signatures on claims upon review and approval or ensure claims had department head approval.

 

Village of Hewlett Bay Park – Financial Management (2022M-30)  

The board did not adopt realistic budgets, or monitor and effectively manage fund balance. As a result, more taxes were levied than needed to fund operations. For example, about $6,000 was needed to balance the budget in 2020-21; however, the property tax levy was $209,000. For the four fiscal years reviewed, the board maintained an excessive level of unassigned surplus fund balance in the general fund and balances ranged between $273,348 and $348,648 or between 45% and 61% of the ensuing year’s budget. The village also underestimated revenues by a total of $420,341 and overestimated expenditures by a total of $608,117 and budgeted for a large operating deficit each year, ranging between $260,003 and $293,105. However, the actual deficits for that period ranged between $5,547 and $42,216. This practice contributed to the continued accumulation of surplus fund balance.

 

Schoharie County Court and Trust (2022-C&T-3)  

Auditors found the treasurer established adequate procedures, maintained appropriate records, and properly reported court and trust funds as prescribed by statute. Records maintained by the county clerk and Surrogate’s Court were also up to date and complete with no material discrepancies.