Audit Objective
Did the Saranac Fire District (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) adequately oversee the District’s financial operations?
Audit Period
January 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025
We extended the audit period back to January 1, 2021, to review the preparation and filing of required Annual Financial Reports (AFRs) and performance of annual audits for the 2020 through 2024 fiscal years.
Understanding the Audit Area
The elected five-member Board governs the District and must provide adequate oversight of the District’s financial operations to ensure that public funds are used effectively, maintain fiscal stability and prevent waste, fraud and mismanagement. This includes overseeing the Board-appointed Treasurer’s financial duties, properly auditing and approving claims before payment and ensuring that annual audits are performed.
During the audit period, collections totaled approximately $2.2 million and disbursements totaled approximately $2.3 million. In addition, the District had funds on deposit at a financial institution in four accounts and in a cooperative municipal investment fund in three accounts with a combined total balance of $958,359 as of June 30, 2025.
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, performing annual audits, receiving State contract pricing for purchases and auditing and approving claims. As a result, the Board’s ability to effectively manage the District’s financial condition, make sound financial decisions and ensure that the District only incurred necessary costs and paid for goods and services that were for appropriate District purposes were impaired. In addition, the District faced an increased risk of theft, waste and abuse of District resources.
The Board did not:
- Provide oversight of the 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 any accounting records to record financial transactions related to the District’s three savings and three investment accounts. In addition, of 50 disbursements totaling $191,807 that we reviewed, the Treasurer did not record three disbursements totaling $595 in the accounting records as of June 30, 2025, and did not accurately record 20 of the remaining 47 disbursements totaling $155,588.
- Ensure that the Treasurer prepared bank reconciliations and provided it with complete and accurate monthly reports. The Treasurer did not prepare any bank reconciliations for the District’s four bank and three investment accounts that were open during the audit period. In addition, for all five budget-status reports that we reviewed, the recorded year-to-date expenditures were understated by amounts ranging between $2,239 and $400,335.
- Ensure that the Treasurer prepared and filed the required AFR each year. The Treasurer did not prepare or file the District’s AFRs for the 2020 through 2024 fiscal years.1
- Ensure the required independent audits of the District’s records were performed for the 2020 through 2024 fiscal years or audit the Treasurer’s records for the same years.
- Ensure that officials filed the required information with the New York State Office of General Services (OGS) to receive State contract pricing for propane purchases. As a result, the District did not receive State contract pricing and expended $10,764 more than necessary for propane purchases.
- Properly audit and approve all claims before payment. We reviewed 149 disbursements for claims paid, totaling $350,030 and identified several deficiencies,2 of which included the following:
- 35 disbursements (23 percent) totaling $43,092 did not have sufficient supporting documentation with the claim for either all or a portion of the disbursement amount totaling $11,407, including $10,011 paid for 51 credit card charges.
- 17 disbursements (11 percent) totaling $29,483 included sales tax totaling $1,381, even though the District was exempt from paying sales tax.
- 30 disbursements (20 percent) totaling $25,735 were made before the Board audited and approved the claims for these disbursements. In addition, there was no evidence indicating that the Treasurer provided claims for 27 of these disbursements totaling $22,858 to the Board for its audit and approval.
The report includes 12 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Board’s oversight of the District’s financial operations. District 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. 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.
1 OSC’s website provides more information on AFR nonfilers and the District’s current AFR filing status at: https://web.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/afr-non-filers/
2 Some of the disbursements included multiple deficiencies.