Audit Objective
Did the Village of Richburg (Village) Board of Trustees (Board) conduct or provide for an annual audit of the Clerk-Treasurer’s financial records and reports, and did the Clerk-Treasurer file the Annual Financial Report (AFR) with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) as required?
Audit Period
June 1, 2022 – October 1, 2023
We extended our testing to include the Clerk-Treasurer’s fiscal year 20241 property tax collection spreadsheet and extended our review of the last filed AFR to August 2025.
Understanding the Audit Area
To promote transparency, a village board should conduct a thorough and sufficiently detailed audit of the clerk-treasurer’s records to determine whether the accounting records are properly maintained, as well as that reports are complete and accurate. Furthermore, the village board should also ensure that the clerk-treasurer annually prepares, files and makes the AFR available to the public.
With a population of 401, Village officials budgeted a total of $145,937 for the general fund appropriations in fiscal year 2023.
Audit Summary
The Board did not conduct or provide for an audit of the Clerk-Treasurer’s records and reports for fiscal year 2023 in accordance with New York State (NYS) Village Law (Village Law) Section 4-408. The Clerk-Treasurer did not file the results of the Village’s fiscal activities to OSC for the 2019 through 2023 fiscal years, as required by NYS General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30.
Because the Board and the Clerk-Treasurer did not fulfill these statutory responsibilities, transparency of the Village’s fiscal condition was diminished as Village residents, taxpayers, OSC and other interested parties did not have access to the Village’s current fiscal activities.
In addition, we determined that the Clerk-Treasurer:
- Did not properly maintain accounting records, as she did not record $91,194 in cash receipts for property tax or non-property tax funds collected and did not prepare bank reconciliations during the 2023 fiscal year.
- Did not remit property tax collections totaling $1,873 for deposit from June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2024. When questioned, the Clerk-Treasurer admitted to taking $1,060 from the Village in fiscal year 2024. The Clerk-Treasurer was arrested for stealing from the Village and pleaded guilty to petit larceny in April 2026.
Gaps or delays in preparing records, completing annual audits and filing required financial reports undermines transparency and creates missed opportunities to identify and remedy fiscal concerns. Had the Board conducted an annual audit after the fiscal year’s end, it could have identified needed improvements to the collection, deposit and recording processes that would ensure the accounting records were up to date.
Furthermore, the Board’s ineffective oversight of the Clerk-Treasurer not only contributed to a lack of transparency regarding the condition of the Clerk-Treasurer’s records and the Village’s fiscal activities, but it also created an environment for the Clerk-Treasurer’s actions to occur and go undetected.
This report includes 10 recommendations to help the Board and Clerk-Treasurer improve the transparency of their fiscal activities. Village officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.
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. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to OSC within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of GML. 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 in the Clerk-Treasurer’s office.
1 The Village’s fiscal year-end is May 31.