New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the following school district audits have been issued.

East Quogue Union Free School District – Claims Auditing (Suffolk County)

Claims totaling more than $6.1 million were paid before the claims auditor’s approval and audit. The claims auditor did not sign 70 claims totaling $988,677 to indicate audit and approval. Payments were not sufficiently supported for 16 claims totaling $835,152 that the claims auditor approved.

Gates-Chili Central School District – Financial Management (Monroe County)

District officials circumvented the statutory limit on surplus fund balance by making more than $12 million in unbudgeted year-end transfers to capital projects and reserves. In addition, they overstated encumbrances by $827,000 and not did not use $5.3 million in appropriated fund balance as a funding source. The board also increased real property taxes by $2.6 million over the last three years despite having sufficient funds to finance the district’s increased costs.

Homer Central School District – Criminal History Background Checks (Cayuga County)

The district did not consistently comply with education law for employee criminal history background checks. Officials did not perform fingerprint-supported criminal history background checks on nine out of 157 employees tested.

Hornell City School District – Financial Management (Steuben County)

The board adopted budgets that conservatively estimated revenues and appropriations the last three fiscal years, which resulted in unplanned operating surpluses totaling $4,652,365 instead of planned deficits. Due to the unplanned operating surpluses, appropriated fund balance totaling $3,670,000 was not used.

Massena Central School District – Selected Non-Payroll Disbursements (St. Lawrence County)

District officials allowed a third-party administrator (administrator), and three utility vendors, who disbursed $488,545 during the audit period (for dental plan benefits, administrative fees and utilities), direct access to a district bank account to disburse funds. Officials also allowed payment of utilities totaling $60,641 and administrative fees totaling $1,144 without audit and approval by the claims auditor.

Sayville Union Free School District – Purchasing (Suffolk County)

District officials did not use a request for proposals (RFPs) process or seek competition for three professional service providers that were paid $220,748. Four vendors were paid $48,816 for goods procured without a competitive bid as required by district policy. Due to the District’s inconsistent purchasing policies, officials do not have clear guidelines to follow when making purchases and therefore, officials may not be procuring goods and services as intended by the board.

Schodack Central School District – Extra-Classroom Activities (Rensselaer County)

The faculty auditor does not review extra-classroom activity (ECA) records to ensure compliance with the regulations. In addition, 62 of the 69 collections reviewed lacked adequate supporting documentation required by the district’s policy. Student treasurers were not always involved with maintaining club accounting records.

Victor Central School District – Financial Management (Ontario County)

The board and district officials adopted conservative budgets that resulted in circumventing the statutory limit on surplus fund balance by making $2.4 million in unbudgeted year-end transfers to reserves and appropriating $1.6 million in fund balance that was not used. Officials annually increased meal prices, despite repeated warnings from its external auditor that the school food service surplus fund balance was excessive and they overfunded two general fund reserves with balances totaling more than $1.3 million as of June 30, 2018.

Whitehall Central School District – Medicaid Reimbursements (Washington County)

The district lacked adequate procedures to ensure Medicaid claims were submitted and reimbursed for all eligible services provided. Claims were not submitted and reimbursed for 628 eligible services totaling $24,179. Had these services been appropriately claimed, the district could have realized revenues totaling $12,090.

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