Audit Objective
Did Gorham Fire District (District) officials ensure the procurement of goods and services in an economical manner?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – March 25, 2026
Understanding the Audit Area
A fire district board of fire commissioners and its officials should seek competition for goods and services to ensure the best value for taxpayers, prevent conflicts of interest and maintain public trust. Seeking competition also guards against favoritism, extravagance and fraud, while allowing interested vendors a fair and equal opportunity to compete.
The District purchased $475,224 in goods and services during the period of January 1, 2024, through October 14, 2025, including payments of $239,662 toward a building capital improvement project (capital project).
Audit Summary
District officials did not always use a competitive process to procure goods and services in an economical manner or in accordance with statutory requirements set forth in New York State General Municipal Law (GML) and the District’s procurement policy (Policy) adopted on June 9, 2025. When District officials do not seek competition or document the methods used, taxpayers have less assurance that the purchase was made in the most prudent and economical manner, in the District’s best interest, without favoritism and in compliance with applicable statutes. Specifically, of the 77 purchases totaling $446,884 we reviewed, District officials did not use competitive methods for 68 purchases totaling $403,377. Officials did not:
- Seek competitive bids for a capital project with an initial total contract cost of $236,812.1
- Ensure that 62 purchases made before the Policy adoption totaling $131,533 were procured in an economical manner.
- Obtain quotes for one purchase totaling $6,464 made after Policy adoption.
- Solicit requests for proposals (RFPs) or use any other form of competitive process before procuring professional services from eight providers paid $120,333.
- Periodically review natural gas and electric rates, resulting in the District paying at least $6,817 more for its natural gas and electric supply than it needed to.
The report includes four recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the District’s procurement of goods and services. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations 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 GML. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board of Commissioners (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 The total project cost increased to $239,662.