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

East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District – Information Technology (Onondaga County and Madison County)

District officials did not adequately apply established information technology (IT) controls to ensure private and sensitive information was protected from unauthorized access, use and loss. District officials did not adequately manage user accounts and permissions. Five individuals left employment between 2015 and 2019 but had active user accounts. In addition, five employees had unnecessary user permissions and 16 active contractor accounts were not needed, including three accounts that were created in 2015 and 2016. District officials also did not ensure contractors signed the acceptable use policy forms and retain the forms on file. Sensitive IT control weaknesses were communicated confidentially to officials.

Highland Central School District – Non-Instructional Overtime (Ulster County)

District officials did not properly authorize and monitor overtime for non-instructional employees or review the overtime payment calculations. As a result, 20 non-instructional employees were paid overtime totaling $203,444, primarily for non-emergencies. With appropriate scheduling, over $60,000 of these overtime payments could have been avoided or reduced. In addition, 10 employees were overpaid for overtime hours totaling $7,551 and seven employees were underpaid for overtime hours totaling $1,158.

Troy City School District – Payments for Unused Leave Accruals (Rensselaer County)

During the audit period, the district paid 51 employees a total of $477,000 for their unused leave accruals. Auditors reviewed payments totaling $270,000 that were paid to 14 employees and found district officials accurately calculated the payments. Therefore, no recommendations were made. However, district officials identified unused sick leave reporting errors for district retirees. These errors were reported in submissions to the New York State Local Retirement System. Although these errors are beyond the scope of this audit, they are being reviewed and are in the process of being adjusted.

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