Audit Objective
Did the Ransomville Fire District (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) conduct an annual audit of the Treasurer’s financial records and reports, and did the Treasurer file the Annual Financial Report (AFR) with the Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC) as required?
Audit Period
January 1, 2025 – May 1, 2026
We extended our observation of annual AFR filings forward to June 23, 2026, and back to fiscal year 2022.
Understanding the Audit Area
To fulfill its fiscal oversight responsibilities, a board of fire commissioners (board) should conduct an annual audit of the treasurer’s financial records and ensure the treasurer files the AFR with OSC on time as required by New York State (NYS) General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30. Doing so will help identify and address errors or irregularities and provide fire district residents, taxpayers and other interested parties with transparent and reliable information about the fire district’s fiscal condition and operations.
District officials budgeted a total of $332,500 for the general fund appropriations in fiscal year 2025 to provide essential fire protection services; the budget was funded by $337,264 in revenue collections.
Audit Summary
The Board did not conduct an annual audit of the Treasurer’s financial records and reports for fiscal year 2025. Neither the Chairman nor another Commissioner we spoke to was aware the Board should conduct an annual audit, and were therefore unable to tell us when, if ever, the Board last audited the Treasurer’s financial records and reports. However, both the Chairman and the other Commissioner told us they attended the required fire district commissioner training,1 which should include content about the annual audits. In addition, the Treasurer did not prepare and file the 2025 AFR with OSC, or the AFRs for the previous two fiscal years, as required by GML Section 30.
Because the Board did not fulfill its oversight responsibilities, and the Treasurer did not fulfill her statutory responsibilities, transparency of the District’s fiscal activities was diminished. As a result, District residents, taxpayers, OSC and other interested parties did not have access to the District’s current fiscal condition.
Furthermore, had the Board conducted an annual audit of the Treasurer’s records and reports, it may have identified that the Treasurer did not maintain property records for the District’s capital assets,2 and potentially helped remedy this issue.
The report includes seven recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Board’s oversight and transparency of the District’s financial activities. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and their response is included in Appendix B.
This audit was conducted pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and OSC’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of GML. The audit’s methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 181-b of Town Law, a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and forwarded to OSC 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 the CAP, please refer to the OSC brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which was provided with the draft audit report. The Board is encouraged to make the CAP available for public review.
2 A capital asset is defined as a tangible or intangible asset that is used in operations and that has a useful life of more than one year, such as vehicles, machinery and equipment.