New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the
following municipal and school audits were issued on June 23, 2023.
Click on the text highlighted in color to access the entire audit report.
Village of Odessa – Clerk-Treasurer’s Records and Reports (Schuyler County) The former clerk-treasurer did not make cash deposits in a timely manner or properly record her leave usage. In addition, she earned and used leave that she was not entitled to and paid herself an unauthorized payment for unused leave totaling $13,293 when she left employment. The former clerk-treasurer also erroneously reported an additional 392.54 days worked to the New York State and Local Retirement System.
N.B. The release of this report was delayed by the Office of the State Comptroller and submitted to "outside law enforcement for review".
Broome-Delaware-Tioga Board of Cooperative
Educational Services (BOCES) – Capital Planning BOCES officials
did not properly plan or budget for capital expenditures. Between 2018-19 and
2020-21, officials budgeted $916,304 for building repairs. However, building
repairs and improvements totaled over $3.4 million for the same period. Without
adequate capital planning, BOCES officials are limited in their ability to set
long-term priorities. As a result, BOCES officials did not transparently fund
capital expenditures and instead utilized more than $2.5 million of the
component and participating school districts’ surplus funds over the last three
school years.
Afton Central School District – Fund
Balance Management (Chenango County) The board and
district officials did not effectively manage the district’s fund balance. As a
result, they levied more taxes than needed to fund operations and were not
transparent with taxpayers. The board annually overestimated appropriations
from fiscal years 2019-20 through 2021-22 by an average of $1.1 million or 7%. In
addition, surplus fund balance exceeded the 4% statutory limit in each of the
last three fiscal years by approximately $2.9 million to $5.6 million. The
board also unnecessarily appropriated fund balance that was not needed, which
in effect is a reservation of fund balance that is not provided by
statute and circumvents the statutory limit on surplus fund balance. Lastly,
the district incurred $63,561 in unnecessary interest and other associated
costs for the issuance of bond anticipation notes to purchase school buses.
Henry Johnson Charter School – Resident
Tuition Billings and Collections (Albany County) While School
officials ensured resident district tuition billings were adequately supported
for the sample of 30 students reviewed, they did not ensure related district
tuition collections reviewed totaling $8 million were deposited in a timely
manner. Officials and staff also did not monitor collections received to ensure
they were deposited in a timely manner or deposit 29 district tuition
collections totaling $4.9 million in a timely manner.
East Williston Central School District
– Management of Nonstudent Network User Accounts (Nassau County) District
officials did not adequately manage and monitor nonstudent network user
accounts to help prevent unauthorized use, access and loss. Auditors found 222
(32%) of the enabled nonstudent network user accounts were not needed or
disabled. Most of these accounts should have been disabled in February 2021
when the district updated their network access requirements. However, district
officials did not develop a system to communicate when a network account was no
longer necessary and should be deactivated.
Chenango Valley Central School District
– Network User Accounts and Information Technology (IT) Contingency Planning
(Chenango County) District
officials did not adequately manage network user accounts or develop and adopt
an IT contingency plan. Auditors found that sixty-eight (12%) of the district’s
nonstudent network user accounts were no longer needed. Unneeded network user
accounts are additional entry points into a network and, if accessed by
attackers, could be used to inappropriately access and view personal, private
and sensitive information or disable the network.
Rochester Academy Charter School –
Credit Cards (Monroe County) School officials
did not ensure credit card charges were properly approved, adequately supported
and for school purposes and did not perform an effective and timely review of
credit card charges. As a result, school officials approved and paid certain
credit card charges without knowing what was purchased or whether the charges
were for appropriate school purposes. Auditors found 35% of the tested credit
card charges worth $68,523 did not have a receipt or did not have an itemized
receipt and 48% totaling $91,673 had no documented school purpose.
Subsequently, officials obtained and provided some of the missing receipts;
however, 9% of the charges were still missing receipts. Officials also did not
establish adequate written credit card policies and procedures or ensure
compliance with the established policy requirements.
Town of New Albion – Town Supervisor’s Financial Duties (Cattaraugus County) The supervisor did not perform his financial duties or obtain training on how to perform his duties and was unfamiliar with the duties of his office. The town clerk and the bookkeeper performed the supervisor’s financial duties without oversight. By allowing others to perform his duties without oversight, the supervisor has weakened internal controls. For example, from Jan. 1, 2022 through Sept. 30, 2022, the town clerk collected and deposited $937,815 on behalf of the supervisor and performed the supervisor’s payroll duties without oversight. In addition, the bookkeeper performed many of the supervisor’s other day-to-day financial duties, including recording cash receipts and disbursements into the accounting records, preparing the monthly bank reconciliations and generating all of the supervisor’s reports to the board.
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