Development Authority of the North Country

Revenue, Selected Expenses and Accounting System

The Development Authority of the North Country operates a solid waste management facility, a water/sewer facility, and a fiber-optic network that serve the United States Army base at Fort Drum and customers in the surrounding counties. We examined the adequacy of the Authority’s internal controls over certain aspects of its operations and found that improvements were needed in some of these operations. For example, the Authority acquired 11 vehicles for employee business use without analyzing whether the acquisitions were cost effective, and without adequately tracking vehicle usage. We determined that employees’ commuting accounted for a significant amount of the total mileage on the vehicles. We also identified inappropriate and excessive spending on employee lunches, and employee meals and lodging at a conference. We also noted that improvements were needed in the procedures for confirming the accuracy of invoices sent to waste haulers using the Authority’s solid waste management facility.

For a complete copy of Report 2005-S-62 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.