Audit Objective
Did the Village of Moravia (Village) Treasurer (Treasurer) prepare and maintain complete, accurate and timely records and reports?
Audit Period
June 1, 2023 – July 15, 2026
Understanding the Audit Area
Complete, accurate and timely accounting records and reports provide the foundation for sound financial management by helping ensure that all financial activity is properly recorded, assets are safeguarded and financial information is available to support informed decision-making. Accurate accounting records and timely financial reports enable a village board to effectively monitor a village’s financial condition, evaluate budget-to-actual results and identify financial trends. They also promote transparency and accountability by providing officials, taxpayers and other stakeholders with reliable information regarding how public resources are received, spent and managed.
The Village’s budgeted appropriations for the 2025-26 fiscal year totaled $2.7 million for the general, water and sewer funds. The Village also has a wastewater treatment plant capital improvement project with an estimated cost of $25.5 million.
Audit Summary
The Treasurer did not prepare and maintain complete, accurate and timely records and reports. As a result, the Board of Trustees (Board) did not have reliable financial information to effectively manage the Village’s financial operations, which increased the risk that errors, irregularities and misuse of Village resources could occur and remain undetected.
The Treasurer did not properly record all receipts and transfers in and transfers out in the computerized accounting records or report them from June 1, 2023 through August 31, 2025. Specifically, we identified unrecorded and unreported transfers out totaling more than $16.8 million and unrecorded and unreported receipts and transfers into the general, water, sewer and capital projects funds totaling more than $11.8 million. Although the Treasurer prepared bank reconciliations for all bank accounts each month, they were not always accurate. The Treasurer also did not regularly provide budget-to-actual reports to the Board because she did not enter the detailed budget into the computerized accounting records, which would have enabled the reports to be electronically generated. In addition, the Treasurer filed the Village’s 2024-25 Annual Financial Report (AFR) 115 days after the extended due date.1 Furthermore, the 2023-24 and 2024-25 AFRs that the Treasurer filed did not agree with the Village’s financial records.
Had the Board audited or engaged an independent public accountant to audit the Treasurer’s records as required by New York State (NYS) Village Law (Village Law) Section 4-408, the errors and deficiencies identified during the audit may have been detected and corrected sooner.
The report includes six recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Treasurer’s records and reports so that the Board will have reliable financial information to effectively manage the Village’s financial operations. Village officials agreed with our recommendations and have indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.
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 the NYS General Municipal Law (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 GML Section 35. 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 Village Clerk’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/.