New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced his office completed audits of the Chenango Valley Central School District, East Moriches Union Free School District, Eden Central School District and the Hannibal Central School District.
"In an era of limited resources and increased accountability, it's critical that schools make every dollar count," DiNapoli said. "By auditing school district and charter school finances and operations, my office continues to provide taxpayers the assurance that their money is being spent appropriately and effectively."
Chenango Valley Central School District – Budget Review (Broome County)
Auditors found that the significant revenue and expenditure projections in the proposed budget are reasonable.
East Moriches Union Free School District – Budget Review (Suffolk County)
Auditors found that the significant revenue and expenditure projections in the proposed budget are reasonable.
Eden Central School District – Payroll (Erie County)
The director reviews the payroll check register, which includes each payroll check number, date, employee name and total payment for each employee. However, the director told auditors during their fieldwork that he focuses mainly on verifying the check totals. As a result, the director is not adequately reviewing the accuracy of payroll, in particular in situations where wages or pay rates change or when there are additional payments.
Hannibal Central School District – Financial Condition (Cayuga County)
The board and district officials did not develop reasonable budgets or effectively manage the district's financial condition to ensure that the general fund's unrestricted fund balance was within the statutory limit. District officials overestimated operating expenditures in each of the last three fiscal years by a toal of about $7.6 million and appropriated nearly $5 million in fund balance, 97 percent of which was not needed to fund operations. After adding back the unused appropriated fund balance and incorrectly reported compensated absences liability, the district's recalculated unrestricted fund balance annually averaged about 12.4 percent of the ensuing years' budgetary appropriations, which is 8.6 percentage points more than the statutory limit.
For access to state and local government spending and nearly 50,000 state contracts, visit OpenBookNY. The easy-to-use website was created by Comptroller DiNapoli to promote openness in government and provide taxpayers with better access to the financial workings of government.