Audit Objective
Did the Midway Fire Department (Department) Board of Directors (Board) ensure disbursements had adequate supporting documentation, were for appropriate purposes and were properly approved?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – November 30, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A fire department board of directors must provide adequate oversight of disbursements to help ensure financial accountability, prevent the misuse of department funds, maintain compliance with legal requirements and build public trust. The fire department board of directors must ensure disbursements are adequately supported, for appropriate fire department purposes and approved before payment.
From January 1, 2024, through November 30, 2025, the Department made 257 disbursements totaling $94,997.
Audit Summary
The Board did not ensure disbursements had adequate supporting documentation, were for appropriate purposes and were properly approved by the Trustees.1 Furthermore, officials were not aware of the proper use of Foreign Fire Insurance (FFI) tax proceeds and made unauthorized disbursements using those funds. Without a proper review process for all disbursements before payment, the Board and membership cannot ensure the disbursements are accurate and for appropriate purposes. We reviewed 60 disbursements 2 totaling $55,797 and determined officials were unable to support they reviewed and approved any of the 60 disbursements we tested. In addition, almost half of the disbursements reviewed also should not have been paid for other reasons:
- 23 disbursements totaling $9,695 were not adequately supported by itemized invoices or receipts.
- Seven disbursements totaling $2,378 were inappropriate because officials used FFI tax proceeds to give cash prizes and gift cards to members at various Department events.
- One disbursement for $759 included an unsupported amount of $215.
The report includes five recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Department’s disbursement process. Department officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned 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.
1 The Board consists of eight civil officers of which three are designated as Trustees to review and approve the Department’s bills. See Appendix A for more details.
2 All 60 claims had discrepancies. Some claims had more than one discrepancy.