Audit Objective
Did Monroe 2-Orleans Board of Cooperative Educational Services (Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES) officials properly monitor and manage MiFi usage billings?
Audit Period
June 1, 2023 – July 10, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
When a BOCES does not properly monitor and manage technology devices, including MiFi (portable, battery-powered routers that create a local Wi-Fi network for Internet-enabled devices such as laptops or tablets) usage reports, there is an increased risk that both the BOCES and component school districts could be incurring unnecessary costs that are ultimately paid for by component school districts. The Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations (Assistant Superintendent) is responsible for Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES’ business operations, including overseeing MiFi distribution by Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES employees and Cooperative Service (COSER) activity with component school districts, including MiFi distribution, usage and billing.
During the period of June 1, 2023 through March 31, 2025, Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES incurred approximately $137,000 in monthly service costs for 215 MiFi's.
Audit Summary
The Assistant Superintendent did not properly monitor and manage MiFi usage billings. As a result, for the 22-month period examined, Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES unnecessarily paid a total of approximately $28,800 in monthly service charges for 62 MiFi’s. Component school district officials cannot properly monitor or manage MiFi’s issued to them and avoid paying for unnecessary MiFi’s when Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES officials do not provide timely and accurate information regarding the number of MiFi’s the component school districts are paying for or their usage.
We reviewed the data usage of all 215 Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES MiFi devices and determined that:
- 40 of the 156 MiFi’s (26 percent) assigned within Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES were unnecessary based on inactivity1 and incurred monthly service charge costs totaling approximately $18,800.
- 22 of the 59 MiFi’s (37 percent) assigned to component school districts were unnecessary based on inactivity and incurred monthly service charge costs totaling approximately $10,000.
In addition, we determined that two of the nine component school districts included $15,000 and $2,500, respectively, in their preliminary 2024-25 fiscal year COSER contracts with Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, even though neither component school district had active MiFi’s assigned to them for their 2024-25 fiscal years.
The Assistant Superintendent told us it was an oversight that policies and procedures had not been established for determining when a MiFi was no longer necessary or how that information should be communicated. The Assistant Superintendent also told us that he would develop and implement appropriate procedures to monitor and manage MiFi usage and inventory to help ensure only needed MiFi’s are being paid for.
The audit report includes two recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES monitoring and management of MiFi’s. Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they have initiated or plan to initiate corrective action.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the State Comptroller’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of the New York State General Municipal Law, Section 2116-a (3)(c) of the New York State Education Law and Section 170.12 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. To the extent practicable, implementation of the CAP must begin by the end of the next fiscal year. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. The CAP should be posted on Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES’ website for public review.
1 Appendix C includes our methodology for determining the necessity of the MiFi's based on activity levels.