State Comptroller DiNapoli Releases Municipal & School Audits

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

Haverstraw-Stony Point Central School District - Financial Management (Rockland County)

The board and district officials overestimated some appropriations, underestimated certain revenues, and made unbudgeted year-end transfers totaling $94.4 million. This collectively reduced the effectiveness of managing the district's financial condition. The board and district officials also made it appear that they needed more funding to meet operational costs than was necessary by appropriating fund balance to balance the budget. Because realistic budgets were not adopted, the board and district officials accumulated significant fund balance but generally did not need those appropriations. The variances between the budgets district officials presented to taxpayers and the district's actual operational results during the audit period were over $118 million. Of the $94.4 million in year-end transfers, $57.6 million went to the district's reserves. In some circumstances, the year-end transfers totaling $19.1 million were also not approved by the board before the transfer was made.

Riverhead Central School District - Financial Operations (Suffolk County)

District officials did not provide the board with complete and accurate information in a timely manner to enable them to monitor the district's financial operations. Financial reports submitted in six of the 22 months to the board were between 60 and 107 days after month's end. Budget transfers were not properly approved or reported to the board. Also, only one of the 47 budget transfers totaling $12.3 million reviewed was approved by the board.

Henrietta Fire Company Inc. - Board Oversight (Monroe County)

The board did not provide adequate oversight of financial operations, adopt detailed, written bylaws or financial policies, or enforce the limited financial provisions which the bylaws and financial policies contained. The board generally did not review bank statements, canceled check images and bank reconciliations for any accounts to monitor financial operations. Therefore, the board did not have the necessary information to help it ensure that the company's financial operations were adequately accounted for, recorded and reported. As a result, the company had an increased risk of theft, waste and abuse of company resources.

Otsego County - Court and Trust Funds

Pursuant to state abandoned property law, money that has remained in the hands of the county treasurer for a period of three years, together with all accumulated interest less the county treasurer's statutory fees, is deemed abandoned property. After public notice, the county treasurer should pay all abandoned property to the State Comptroller by April of the next year. The treasurer, county clerk and Surrogate's Court clerk generally maintained appropriate records and properly reported court and trust funds. However, auditors identified $74,150 from 15 actions that improperly remained in the treasurer's custody that should have been turned over as abandoned property.

Hilton Central School District - Audit Follow-Up (Monroe County)

A previous audit, Hilton Central School District - Network Access Controls (2022M-200), determined that district officials did not establish written policies or adequate written procedures for managing network user account access. To help officials improve their network access controls, the audit included a public report that contained three recommendations and confidentially conveyed sensitive IT control weaknesses and recommendations. Auditors determined that officials partially implemented all three recommendations. As a result, the district's network continued to have increased risk for unauthorized access, misuse or data loss. Auditors also reviewed progress in implementing the recommendations related to the sensitive IT control weaknesses, and communicated those results confidentially to district officials.