State Comptroller DiNapoli Releases Municipal and School Audits

August 16, 2024

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

Dutchess County - Contract Monitoring (2023M-142)

County officials did not obtain reasonable assurance that certain services with vendors were provided in accordance with contract terms, and payments were appropriate and supported. As a result, various department officials responsible for overseeing the contracts approved claims totaling approximately $4.5 million without ensuring that required contract progress, outcome and budget reports were provided. The comptroller approved claims totaling approximately $10.5 million without supporting documentation from county departments. Expenditures for one contract exceeded the agreed upon contract amount by $215,395.

Long Beach City School District - Financial Management (Nassau County)

The board and district officials did not effectively manage the district's fund balance and did not present the district's spending plans in a transparent and meaningful manner. While real property tax levies remained the same since 2020-21, the district's budgeting practices resulted in tax levies being higher than necessary. The board and officials reported surplus fund balance that exceeded the statutory 4% limit in three of the four years reviewed by as much as 5 percentage points. The district transferred a total of $17.3 million of the general fund's excess fund balance at the end of two of the four fiscal years reviewed to the capital projects fund. Prior to the fiscal year-end transfers that totaled about $13.4 million, the surplus fund balance exceeded the statutory limit by as much as 9 percentage points and overestimated appropriations by an average of approximately $2.5 million annually and underestimated revenues by an average of $1.6 million annually for a three-year period.

Delaware Academy Central School District at Delhi - Financial Management (Delaware County)

The board and district officials failed to properly manage fund balance and reserves. The board and officials' appropriated fund balance that was not needed and maintained unreasonable reserve balances that circumvented the statutory limit on surplus fund balance and resulted in a real property tax levy that was higher than needed to fund operations. From the 2020-21 through 2022-23 fiscal years, the board and district officials overestimated budgetary appropriations by a total of $5 million (8.6%) and developed budgets that appropriated fund balance to address planned budget gaps totaling approximately $2.5 million. However, the district had operating surpluses totaling approximately $3.2 million and the planned budget gaps were not realized and it reported a surplus fund balance that exceeded the statutory limit by $2.2 million, or 10.4 percentage points, as of June 30, 2023.

Falconer Central School District - Financial Management (Chautauqua County)

Although 2009 and 2016 audits identified that the board and district officials did not properly manage fund balance and reserves, a new audit found officials did not implement corrective action. The board and district officials allowed surplus fund balance to exceed the statutory limit as of June 30, 2023 by 20 percentage points, or $6.1 million and consistently overestimated budgetary appropriations by an annual average of $3.7 million (17%). Officials could not demonstrate that three reserves with balances totaling more than $4 million were properly maintained or reasonably funded.

Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Service (Westchester County)

BOCES officials did not adequately secure nonstudent network user accounts, maintain complete and accurate information technology (IT) inventory records and develop an IT contingency plan. As a result, BOCES officials cannot ensure that IT systems, which contain personal, private and sensitive information (PPSI), along with physical IT assets, are properly safeguarded from inappropriate use and access. In addition, auditors determined that 101 enabled nonstudent network accounts were no longer needed and, if accessed by attackers, could be used to inappropriately access and view personal, private and sensitive information or disable the network. 16 IT assets could not be traced to or from BOCES' inventory system and 40 IT assets were not properly recorded in the system.