Audit Objective
Did the Beekmantown Fire District No. 1 (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) adequately oversee the District’s financial operations?
Audit Period
January 1, 2023 – January 31, 2025
We extended the audit period back to January 1, 2020 to review the preparation and filing of required annual financial reports (AFRs).
Understanding the Audit Area
The Board is responsible for managing and controlling the District’s financial operations and must adequately oversee the District’s financial operations to ensure that public funds are managed with accountability, transparency and integrity. This critical function can help maintain public trust, ensure compliance with legal requirements and prevent mismanagement, waste and fraud.
During the audit period, collections totaled $836,660 and accounts payable and payroll disbursements totaled $590,354. In addition, the District had funds on deposit at one financial institution in a noninterest-bearing checking account and a savings account.
Audit Summary
The Board did not adequately oversee the District’s financial operations related to maintaining accounting records, preparing bank reconciliations, submitting monthly and annual financial reports, auditing and approving claims and performing annual audits. As a result, the Board could not effectively manage the District’s financial condition, make sound financial decisions and ensure that the District incurred only necessary costs and paid for goods and services that were for appropriate District purposes. The Board did not:
- Provide oversight of the Secretary-Treasurer’s (Treasurer’s) duties related to maintaining the accounting records, which resulted in deficiencies in the District’s accounting records. For example, the Treasurer did not maintain a balance sheet, or other accounting records that contained cash balances, for the District’s two bank accounts. Also, of 50 disbursements totaling $155,772 that we reviewed, the Treasurer did not record three disbursements totaling $1,363 in the accounting records as of January 31, 2025 and did not accurately record the other 47 totaling $154,409.The inadequately maintained accounting records also prevented the Treasurer from being able to properly reconcile the District’s bank accounts during the audit period.
- Ensure that the Treasurer submitted adequate monthly financial reports. For all five monthly Treasurer’s reports that we reviewed, the recorded disbursements and/or adjusted cash balances for the checking account were inaccurate. For example, recorded adjusted cash balances for the checking account were understated by $460 in one report and overstated in the other four reports by amounts ranging between $26 and $565.Also, the Board received one budget status report during the audit period in December 2023, and this report did not include budget-to-actual comparisons for revenues.
- Ensure that the Treasurer prepared and filed an AFR each year. The Treasurer did not prepare or file any of the District’s AFRs since she was first appointed in 2019.As a result, as of January 31, 2025, the District’s AFRs for the 2019 through 2023 fiscal years were between 337 and 1,798 days late.
- Properly audit and approve all claims before payment. We reviewed 257 disbursements for claims paid totaling $222,372 and identified several deficiencies,1 which included the following:
- 89 disbursements (35 percent) totaling $44,286 did not have any evidence indicating that the Treasurer provided claims for these disbursements to the Board for its audit and approval.
- 74 disbursements (29 percent) totaling $43,479 did not have sufficient supporting documentation (e.g., invoices or receipts).
- 26 disbursements (10 percent) totaling $10,569 included late fees and/or finance charges totaling $257, which caused the District to incur unnecessary costs.
- 42 disbursements (16 percent) totaling $9,150 included sales tax totaling $577, even though the District was exempt from paying sales tax.
- Audit the Treasurer’s records for 2023 and 2024.
In addition, as of January 31, 2025, three Fire Commissioners (Commissioners) had not completed mandatory fiscal oversight training even though more than 270 days had elapsed since the start of their terms. While the other two Commissioners were not yet required to complete the mandatory training during their current terms, they did not complete the mandatory training during their previous terms.
The report includes 13 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Board’s oversight of the District’s financial operations. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s (OSC) authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law (GML).Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 181-b of New York State Town Law (Town Law), a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and forwarded to our office within 90 days. 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. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review.
1 Some of the disbursements included multiple deficiencies.