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Dutchess County – Contract
Monitoring (2023M-142)
County officials did not obtain reasonable assurance that certain services with
vendors were provided in accordance with contract terms, and payments were
appropriate and supported. As a result, various department officials
responsible for overseeing the contracts approved claims totaling approximately
$4.5 million without ensuring that required contract progress, outcome and
budget reports were provided. The comptroller approved claims totaling
approximately $10.5 million without supporting documentation from county
departments. Expenditures for one contract exceeded the agreed upon contract
amount by $215,395.
Long Beach City
School District – Financial Management (Nassau County)
The board and district officials did not effectively manage the district’s fund
balance and did not present the district’s spending plans in a transparent and
meaningful manner. While real property tax levies remained the same since
2020-21, the district’s budgeting practices resulted in tax levies being higher
than necessary. The board and officials reported surplus fund balance that
exceeded the statutory 4% limit in three of the four years reviewed by as much
as 5 percentage points. The district transferred a total of $17.3 million of
the general fund’s excess fund balance at the end of two of the four fiscal
years reviewed to the capital projects fund. Prior to the fiscal year-end transfers
that totaled about $13.4 million, the surplus fund balance exceeded the
statutory limit by as much as 9 percentage points and overestimated
appropriations by an average of approximately $2.5 million annually and
underestimated revenues by an average of $1.6 million annually for a three-year
period.
Delaware Academy
Central School District @ Delhi – Financial Management (Delaware County)
The board and district officials failed to properly manage fund balance and
reserves. The board and officials’ appropriated fund balance that was not
needed and maintained unreasonable reserve balances that circumvented the
statutory limit on surplus fund balance and resulted in a real property tax
levy that was higher than needed to fund operations. From the 2020-21 through
2022-23 fiscal years, the board and district officials overestimated budgetary
appropriations by a total of $5 million (8.6%) and developed budgets that
appropriated fund balance to address planned budget gaps totaling approximately
$2.5 million. However, the district had operating surpluses totaling
approximately $3.2 million and the planned budget gaps were not realized and it
reported a surplus fund balance that exceeded the statutory limit by $2.2
million, or 10.4 percentage points, as of
Falconer Central School
District – Financial Management (Chautauqua County)
Although 2009 and 2016 audits identified that the board and district officials
did not properly manage fund balance and reserves, a new audit found officials
did not implement corrective action. The board and district officials allowed
surplus fund balance to exceed the statutory limit as of
Southern Westchester
Board of Cooperative Educational Service (Westchester County)
BOCES officials did not adequately secure nonstudent network user accounts,
maintain complete and accurate information technology (IT) inventory records
and develop an IT contingency plan. As a result, BOCES officials cannot ensure
that IT systems, which contain personal, private and sensitive information
(PPSI), along with physical IT assets, are properly safeguarded from
inappropriate use and access. In addition, auditors determined that 101 enabled
nonstudent network accounts were no longer needed and, if accessed by
attackers, could be used to inappropriately access and view personal, private
and sensitive information or disable the network. 16 IT assets could not be
traced to or from BOCES’ inventory system and 40 IT assets were not properly
recorded in the system.
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