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

Village of Odessa – Clerk-Treasurer’s Records and Reports (Schuyler County)

The former clerk-treasurer did not make cash deposits in a timely manner or properly record her leave usage. In addition, she earned and used leave that she was not entitled to and paid herself an unauthorized payment for unused leave totaling $13,293 when she left employment. The former clerk-treasurer also erroneously reported an additional 392.54 days worked to the New York State and Local Retirement System. The release of this report was held due to the findings being referred to outside law enforcement for review.

Broome-Delaware-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) – Capital Planning

BOCES officials did not properly plan or budget for capital expenditures. Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, officials budgeted $916,304 for building repairs. However, building repairs and improvements totaled over $3.4 million for the same period. Without adequate capital planning, BOCES officials are limited in their ability to set long-term priorities. As a result, BOCES officials did not transparently fund capital expenditures and instead utilized more than $2.5 million of the component and participating school districts’ surplus funds over the last three school years.

Afton Central School District – Fund Balance Management (Chenango County)

The board and district officials did not effectively manage the district’s fund balance. As a result, they levied more taxes than needed to fund operations and were not transparent with taxpayers. The board annually overestimated appropriations from fiscal years 2019-20 through 2021-22 by an average of $1.1 million or 7%. In addition, surplus fund balance exceeded the 4% statutory limit in each of the last three fiscal years by approximately $2.9 million to $5.6 million. The board also unnecessarily appropriated fund balance that was not needed, which in effect is a reservation of fund balance that is not provided by statute and circumvents the statutory limit on surplus fund balance. Lastly, the district incurred $63,561 in unnecessary interest and other associated costs for the issuance of bond anticipation notes to purchase school buses.

Henry Johnson Charter School – Resident Tuition Billings and Collections (Albany County)

While School officials ensured resident district tuition billings were adequately supported for the sample of 30 students reviewed, they did not ensure related district tuition collections reviewed totaling $8 million were deposited in a timely manner. Officials and staff also did not monitor collections received to ensure they were deposited in a timely manner or deposit 29 district tuition collections totaling $4.9 million in a timely manner.

East Williston Union Free School District – Management of Nonstudent Network User Accounts (Nassau County)

District officials did not adequately manage and monitor nonstudent network user accounts to help prevent unauthorized use, access and loss. Auditors found 222 (32%) of the enabled nonstudent network user accounts were not needed or disabled. Most of these accounts should have been disabled in February 2021 when the district updated their network access requirements. However, district officials did not develop a system to communicate when a network account was no longer necessary and should be deactivated.

Chenango Valley Central School District – Network User Accounts and Information Technology (IT) Contingency Planning (Chenango County)

District officials did not adequately manage network user accounts or develop and adopt an IT contingency plan. Auditors found that sixty-eight (12%) of the district’s nonstudent network user accounts were no longer needed. Unneeded network user accounts are additional entry points into a network and, if accessed by attackers, could be used to inappropriately access and view personal, private and sensitive information or disable the network.

Rochester Academy Charter School – Credit Cards (Monroe County)

School officials did not ensure credit card charges were properly approved, adequately supported and for school purposes and did not perform an effective and timely review of credit card charges. As a result, school officials approved and paid certain credit card charges without knowing what was purchased or whether the charges were for appropriate school purposes. Auditors found 35% of the tested credit card charges worth $68,523 did not have a receipt or did not have an itemized receipt and 48% totaling $91,673 had no documented school purpose. Subsequently, officials obtained and provided some of the missing receipts; however, 9% of the charges were still missing receipts. Officials also did not establish adequate written credit card policies and procedures or ensure compliance with the established policy requirements.

Town of New Albion – Town Supervisor’s Financial Duties (Cattaraugus County)

The supervisor did not perform his financial duties or obtain training on how to perform his duties and was unfamiliar with the duties of his office. The town clerk and the bookkeeper performed the supervisor’s financial duties without oversight. By allowing others to perform his duties without oversight, the supervisor has weakened internal controls. For example, from Jan. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2022, the town clerk collected and deposited $937,815 on behalf of the supervisor and performed the supervisor’s payroll duties without oversight. In addition, the bookkeeper performed many of the supervisor’s other day-to-day financial duties, including recording cash receipts and disbursements into the accounting records, preparing the monthly bank reconciliations and generating all of the supervisor’s reports to the board.