Audit Objective
Did the Village of Lansing (Village) Board (Board) and officials use a competitive process to procure goods and services?
Audit Period
June 1, 2024 – July 31, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A village board and village officials should seek competition to ensure goods and services are acquired in a prudent and economical manner in the taxpayers’ best interest, while also avoiding conflicts of interest to maintain public trust. Seeking competition also guards against favoritism, extravagance, fraud and corruption, while allowing interested vendors a fair and equal opportunity to compete.
The Department of Public Works Superintendent (Superintendent) and Clerk-Treasurer, under the direction of the Board, are responsible for Village purchases. The Village expended $7.8 million for goods and services during the audit period.
Audit Summary
The Board and Village officials did not always use a competitive process to procure goods and services according to the statutory requirements in New York State General Municipal Law (GML), the Village’s procurement policy (Policy) or best practices. As a result, Village officials did not have assurance that purchases were made in a manner that guards against favoritism, improvidence, extravagance, fraud and corruption, while fostering honest competition for the Village to obtain the best goods and services at the lowest possible price.
More specifically, the Board and Village officials could not provide supporting documentation that they used any sort of competitive process to obtain goods and services totaling $468,700, which represented 52 percent of the purchases we reviewed. The Board and Superintendent did not:
- Seek intermittent competition when procuring professional services and insurance coverage from five vendors totaling $309,500. These professional services included engineering, legal and accounting services.
- Maintain supporting documentation for using exceptions to competitive bidding, including one purchase contract totaling $68,500, or obtain required competitive bids for one contract for public work totaling $37,500.
- Seek competition in accordance with the Policy for eight purchases totaling $53,200.
The report includes six recommendations that, if implemented, will improve Village officials’ ability to procure goods and services in accordance with statutory requirements, the Policy and procurement best practices. Such improvements will also enhance oversight and accountability and help ensure that goods and services are obtained through fair and competitive processes. Village 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 the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s (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.