Merrick Academy Charter School

Financial Management Practices

Merrick Academy Charter School is located in New York City and has about 500 students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 6. The School, which was established in 2000, is one of more than 40 schools chartered by the State University of New York. We audited the adequacy of the internal controls established by School officials over selected areas of financial operations, and identified a number of weaknesses in these controls. For example, there was often no documentation on file to support either the amount paid or the business purpose of disbursements from a checking account that was supposed to expedite purchases of $500 or less. We also found that more than $1,800 in petty cash disbursements could not be accounted for, and identified weaknesses in the controls over procurement, payroll and personal services, and equipment inventories. We further determined that the School’s Board of Trustees was not meeting as often as it was supposed to meet.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-66 click here.