Audit Objective
Did the Village of Whitehall (Village) Clerk-Treasurer maintain complete, accurate and timely records and reports?
Audit Period
June 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A village clerk-treasurer, as chief fiscal officer, must maintain complete, accurate and timely accounting records and reports for informed decision-making, legal compliance and accountability. These records are essential for a village board and officials when monitoring a village’s financial health, making sound fiscal decisions, ensuring that the village complies with various laws and maintaining transparency and the public’s trust.
The Village’s accounting records included three operating funds during the audit period: general, water and sewer. The Village’s accounting records also included a capital projects fund during the audit period. The Village’s budgeted appropriations for the 2025-26 fiscal year, that runs from June 1 through May 31, totaled $2.4 million for the general fund, $482,424 for the water fund and $735,530 for the sewer fund.
Audit Summary
The Clerk-Treasurer did not maintain complete and accurate accounting records, provide the Board of Trustees (Board) with monthly financial reports, or file the fiscal year 2024-25 Annual Financial Report (AFR) with the New York State Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) as required by General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30.1 As a result, the Board’s ability to properly and effectively monitor and manage the Village’s financial operations was limited and transparency was diminished as Village residents and other interested parties were prevented from being informed of the Village’s financial position.
Due to limited oversight of the Clerk-Treasurer’s duties related to maintaining the accounting records, errors and deficiencies in the Village’s accounting records went undetected. The errors and deficiencies included, but were not limited to, the following:
- We reviewed seven asset and eight liability accounts among the Village’s three operating funds and capital projects fund as of May 31, 2025, and determined that five of the seven asset accounts (71 percent) and all eight liability accounts were inaccurately recorded. For example, general fund assets were overstated by a net of $154,804 and liabilities were understated by a net of $717,252, resulting in the fund balance in the general fund potentially being overstated by $872,056.
- We reviewed 10 revenue accounts recorded in the accounting records as of May 31, 2025, and determined that three revenue accounts were overstated by a combined total of $411,324 and one revenue account was understated by a total of $321.
- The Clerk-Treasurer did not record deposits totaling $1.6 million in the accounting records as of August 31, 2025.
In addition, bank reconciliations were either not prepared or not properly prepared by the former and current Clerk-Treasurer for all bank accounts, and bank reconciliations were not reviewed by the Board or other designee. For 39 of the 59 bank reconciliations (66 percent) we prepared, the adjusted bank balances did not agree with the general ledger cash balances at month-end. Furthermore, the Board did not audit, or contract with an independent public accountant to audit, the Clerk-Treasurer’s records for the 2024-25 fiscal year as required by New York State Village Law (Village Law) Section 4-408. Had the Board periodically monitored the Village’s finances and performed the required annual audit; the deficiencies identified during the audit may have been detected and corrected sooner.
The report includes 11 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Village’s recording and reporting of financial transactions. Village officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or 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 the GML. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of the 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 Clerk-Treasurer’s office.
1 OSC’s website provides more information on AFR nonfilers and the Village’s current AFR filing status at: https://web.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/afr-non-filers/.