Audit Objective
Did Cicero Volunteer Fire Department (Department) officials ensure that financial activities were properly recorded and reported and funds were safeguarded?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – July 21, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A fire department treasurer should maintain complete, accurate and current accounting records and reports to comply with legal requirements and help a fire department’s board and officials make informed decisions and effectively monitor the department’s financial activities. A fire department’s board should provide adequate oversight of the financial operations to ensure that public funds are managed with accountability, transparency and integrity. This critical function can help maintain public trust, ensure legal compliance and prevent mismanagement, waste and fraud.
For the 2024 fiscal year, the Department’s disbursements totaled about $339,000 and deposits totaled about $378,000.
Audit Summary
Department officials did not ensure that the Department’s financial activities were properly recorded and reported and that funds were safeguarded. As a result, the Department Executive Board (Board) and volunteer members (membership) could not effectively monitor the budget, provide adequate oversight of the Department’s financial activities and make informed financial decisions. In addition, because the Department did not have effective controls over cash disbursements and collections, it has an increased risk that Department officials may pay for improper expenses and that all collections might not be deposited and recorded.
The Department Treasurer (Treasurer) did not:
- Maintain accurate, complete and up-to-date financial records or provide the Board and membership with adequate financial reports. We identified significant errors and unrecorded transactions in the accounting records. For example, the Treasurer recorded $216,088 that was received for a building lease payment twice, which overstated the Department’s cash and revenue in its accounting records. As a result, the Board and membership could not effectively monitor the Department’s financial activities.
- Prepare accurate bank reconciliations in a timely manner. Completed reconciliations contained invalid reconciling items and, as of March 2025, the Treasurer was 11 months behind in completing the bank reconciliations. Accurate and timely reconciliations are needed to ensure that Department funds are properly accounted for and safeguarded.
- Prepare and submit the annual report for Foreign Fire Insurance (FFI) tax proceeds to the Board and membership, and to the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), as required by New York State (NYS) General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30-a. The Department received $46,565 in FFI tax proceeds during 2024. These annual reports provide additional transparency on the Department’s use of FFI tax proceeds.
- Issue customer receipts for all collections, unless requested, and did not deposit all collections in a timely manner. Using press-numbered duplicate receipts and making timely deposits help establish accountability and transparency, and reduce the risk of funds being misappropriated, by safeguarding funds, providing proof of payment for transactions, helping ensure that collections were deposited intact (in the same form as they were received, such as cash or check) and maintaining organized records for accounting and audit purposes.
In addition, the Board did not:
- Prepare and present to the membership an annual director’s report, as required by NYS Not-for- Profit Corporation Law (NFP Law) Section 519. This report provides additional transparency for the Department’s financial activities and helps the membership make informed financial decisions.
- Ensure that the Treasurer provided the Department’s financial records to the Department audit committee (audit committee) on a quarterly basis and that the audit committee conducted timely audits as required by the Department’s bylaws. The audit committee serves an important oversight function because the Treasurer performed most of the Department’s financial duties, including receiving cash, writing checks and maintaining the Department’s accounting records, without any oversight of her work.
- Ensure that all disbursements had adequate support, such as an itemized receipt or invoice that described the goods and services purchased, or review and approve all disbursements before payment. Sixty-one disbursements totaling $33,182 were not approved before they were paid, and 20 disbursements totaling $237,152 were not adequately supported. When the Treasurer pays bills that have not been reviewed and/or approved before payment, and disbursements are not supported by adequate invoices or other documentation, the Department has an increased risk that disbursements may not be for valid Department purposes.
The report includes 15 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve controls over the Department’s financial activities. Department officials generally agreed with our findings and indicated they 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. We encourage the Board to prepare a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the recommendations in this report and forward it to our office within 90 days. 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. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review.