Audit Objective
Did the Town of Catharine (Town) Board (Board) conduct or provide for an annual audit of the Town Supervisor’s (Supervisor) financial records and reports, and did the Supervisor file the Annual Financial Report (AFR) with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) as required?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – May 1, 2025
We extended our observation of annual AFR filings forward to November 28, 2025, and back to fiscal year 2023.
Understanding the Audit Area
To help promote transparency, a town board should conduct a thorough and sufficiently detailed audit of the town supervisor’s records to determine whether the accounting records are properly maintained, as well as that reports are complete and accurate. Furthermore, in light of a town board’s responsibility to oversee the general management and control of the town’s finances, the town board should also help ensure that the town supervisor annually prepares, files and makes the AFR available to the public.
With a population of 1,651, Town officials budgeted a total of $887,849 for the general fund and highway fund appropriations in fiscal year 2024 and provided essential services to the public, such as general government support, street maintenance and improvement, snow removal and fire protection.
Audit Summary
The Board did not conduct or provide for an annual audit of the Supervisor’s financial records and reports for fiscal year 2024 in accordance with New York State (NYS) Town Law (Town Law).In addition, the Supervisor did not prepare and file the 2024 AFR with OSC, as required by NYS General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30. Furthermore, the Supervisor did not provide the Board with complete monthly financial reports.
Had the Board received complete monthly reports and conducted an annual audit of the Supervisor’s books, records and documents, it may have identified and potentially helped remedy these issues.
Without complete, accurate and reliable financial information, the Board cannot effectively monitor the Town’s financial position and available fund balance to make informed decisions. Because the Board and Supervisor did not fulfill their statutory responsibilities, transparency of the Town’s fiscal condition was diminished as Town residents, taxpayers, OSC and other interested parties did not have access to the Town’s current fiscal activities.
Based on our review of the Supervisor’s records, we determined that the Supervisor did not:
- Record the dates he collected cash receipts and enter the receipts in the accounting records in a timely manner. This increased the risk that Town funds could be lost, stolen or misappropriated, as we were unable to determine whether the Supervisor made or recorded the deposits in a timely manner after collection.
- Ensure that the Board’s claims audit was documented and all claims were supported prior to payment, which undermined the Board’s ability to safeguard Town resources.
- Provide the Board with trial balance1 or balance sheet reports and bank reconciliations, hindering its ability to monitor the Town’s financial affairs throughout the year.
This report includes 10 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s financial reporting and help the Board and Supervisor improve the transparency of their fiscal activities. Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and their response is included in Appendix B. Appendix C includes our comment on an issue raised in the Town’s response.
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 D.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of GML. 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 in the Town Clerk’s (Clerk’s) office.
1 The trial balance is an internal accounting report that lists every account in the general ledger with its balance at a specific point in time. The report is a list of the balances of the accounts in a ledger kept by double entry, with the debit and credit balances shown in separate columns. If the totals of the debit and credit columns are equal, the ledger from which the figures are taken is said to be in balance. It helps to check the accuracy of bookkeeping.