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

Hauppauge Union Free School District – Leave Accruals (Suffolk County)

District officials did not properly account for leave accruals for 22 of the 49 employees’ accrual records tested. The district may incur $47,817 in additional payroll costs if the errors are not corrected. Auditors determined nine employees did not always record their hours worked or not worked, which resulted in leave balances which may be overstated by 27 days; ten employees’ electronic and manual timekeeping records did not match, reflecting a difference of 15 days; and two employees received a total of 81 more days of leave than their collective bargaining agreements stipulated.

Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District – Information Technology (IT) Assets and Network Access (Herkimer County)

District officials did not maintain appropriate IT asset inventory records or establish adequate IT controls over network user accounts. Nine of 31 devices (laptops, desktops and tablets) tested were not located. Sixty-five network user accounts were also not needed. Officials did not develop a written IT contingency plan, increasing the risk that the district could lose important data and suffer a serious interruption to operations, such as not being able to process paychecks, vendor payments, student grades or state aid claims.

Silver Creek Central School District – Financial Management (Erie County)

The board and district officials need to improve their budgeting practices and transparency. The board and district officials overestimated general fund appropriations by $6.7 million and appropriated $2.7 million of fund balance and reserve funds that were not needed to fund operations from 2018-19 through 2020-21. They also adopted annual budgets which gave taxpayers the impression the district would have operating deficits when it had operating surpluses. As of June 30, 2021, the district maintained a surplus fund balance that exceeded the legal limit of 4% by approximately $7.1 million, or 27 percentage points.

Bradford Central School District – Claims Auditor (Schuyler County)

The claims auditor did not perform a proper claims audit because she did not ensure claims had adequate supporting documentation for her review prior to approval. Auditors reviewed 74 claims totaling approximately $3 million and found that 70 claims totaling $2.96 million did not contain documentation for the claims auditor to perform a proper audit. The claims auditor, who is an employee of the Greater Southern Tier Board of Cooperative Educational Services (GST BOCES), inappropriately audited and approved 25 claims for the GST BOCES service charges totaling approximately $2.4 million. This compromised the claims auditor’s objectivity and independence.

Gilboa-Conesville Central School District – Fund Balance Management (Delaware County)

The board and district officials did not effectively manage fund balance. As a result, they were not transparent with taxpayers and the district levied more taxes than needed to fund operations. The board overestimated appropriations from fiscal years 2019-20 through 2021-22 by an average of $585,636, or 6%, and appropriated fund balance that was not used. Surplus fund balance exceeded the 4% statutory limit in each of the last three fiscal years by 3.1 to 12.8 percentage points. Reserves totaling $2 million could cover expenditures for retirement contributions for at least nine years, workers’ compensation for 10 years and unemployment for 31 years.

Young Women’s College Prep Charter School of Rochester – Network and Financial Software Access Controls (Monroe County)

School officials did not ensure that network and financial software access controls were adequate. As a result, data and personal, private and sensitive information are at greater risk for unauthorized access, misuse, or loss. Auditors found that 14% or 10 of the school’s network user accounts were not needed. Three network user accounts had unnecessary network administrative permissions and two non-administrator financial software user accounts unnecessarily had full access, including the ability to delete transactions. The board also did not adopt an adequate written IT contingency plan or provide IT security awareness training.

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