Audit Objective
Did Midway Fire District (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) properly audit claims?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
The audit of claims is often the last line of defense for preventing unauthorized, improper or fraudulent claims from being paid. When a fire district has a strong claims auditing process, the control consciousness of its staff is enhanced because officers and employees are aware that a careful review of claims will occur before public funds are disbursed. Because it is the Board’s responsibility to ensure tax dollars are spent properly, efficiently and in the best interest of taxpayers, the Board should conduct a thorough and deliberate audit of claims before directing the Treasurer to pay them.
The District made 695 disbursements totaling approximately $1.1 million during the audit period.
Audit Summary
Although required, the Board did not thoroughly and deliberately audit all claims during the audit period. We reviewed 71 claims (57 disbursements) totaling $542,613 and determined that 26 claims totaling $123,874 were not always adequately supported; included sales tax, unnecessary charges including potentially inappropriate gift cards; or were not audited and approved by the entire Board prior to payment. The lack of a proper audit of claims increased the risk that claims for inappropriate purposes could be paid, or that irregularities could go undetected and uncorrected.
Specifically, we identified the following discrepancies in the Board’s audit of 12 claims, that totaled $107,617, or 17 percent of all claims reviewed:
- Two claims totaling $66,332 were audited only by the Chairman instead of the entire Board approving the claims.
- Five claims totaling $21,625 included seven charges totaling $1,728 which did not have an itemized invoice or receipt. Although officials could not provide supporting documentation for seven charges, they assert the purchases were for legitimate District purposes. However, due to the lack of documentation to support what was purchased, we could not confirm their assertions.
- Five claims totaling $19,660 were paid in advance of audit and approval prior to the monthly Board meetings. However, the claims were not authorized to be paid in advance.
We also noted the following matters during our review of the District’s claims:
- Potentially inappropriate gift card purchases totaling $2,000 were made.
- Sales tax totaling $762 was paid, even though the District was exempt from paying sales tax.
- Unnecessary late fees and finance charges totaling $212 were paid.
The report includes four recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the effectiveness of the District’s claims audit process. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated corrective action.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and New York Office of the State Comptroller’s (OSC) 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. Pursuant to Section 181-b of New York State 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.