Audit Objective
Did the Sayville Fire District (District) Board of Commissioners (Board) properly audit and approve claims before payment?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – February 28, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A board of fire commissioners (board) should conduct a thorough and deliberate audit of all claims, before authorizing them to be paid, to ensure that tax dollars are spent properly, efficiently and in the best interests of taxpayers. Auditing claims also helps the board ensure that internal controls are working as intended and monitor the financial duties of the fire district treasurer. 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.
The District’s 2024 expenditures totaled $3.6 million and were funded primarily by real property taxes. During the audit period, the District processed 1,586 claim vouchers (vouchers) totaling $2.6 million.
Audit Summary
The Board did not properly audit and approve all claims before payment. When the Board does not perform a thorough and complete review of claims to ensure that they are supported by adequate invoices or other documentation, the District has an increased risk that it could incur unnecessary costs or pay for goods or services that are not valid District expenditures.
We determined that the Board did not always perform a thorough and deliberate audit of claims before approving payments. We reviewed 365 claims totaling more than $1.5 million1 and determined 260 claims (71 percent) totaling approximately $1.2 million should not have been approved because the claims did not contain sufficient information to allow for a proper audit, or they contained one or more discrepancies. In addition, none of the 365 claims had proper budget account codes, which prevented the Board from ensuring that there were sufficient appropriations available to pay the claims and caused some claims to be improperly approved. For example, although the District is a nonprofit organization, the Board approved claims that included sales taxes totaling $808. Also, claims totaling $277 were paid to purchase alcoholic beverages2 that officials used to dedicate (break the bottles on) a new fire truck.
The report includes nine recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the effectiveness of the District’s claims audit processes. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Appendix C includes our comment on an issue that was raised in the District’s response letter.
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 D.
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 Refer to Appendix C for further information on our sample selection.
2 Bottles of champagne.