Fort Ann Central School District - Fund Balance Management (2018M-119)

Issued Date
October 05, 2018

[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine if officials effectively managed the District’s general fund balance.

Key Findings

  • The District’s unrestricted fund balance at the end of 2016-17 was almost $1.83 million or 15.25 percent of the ensuing year’s budgeted appropriations, exceeding the statutory limit by 11.25 percentage points.
  • The budgets overestimated appropriations by more than $2.03 million or 6 percent from 2015-16 through 2017-18.

Key Recommendations

  • Ensure that the District’s fund balance is in compliance with statutory limits and use surplus funds as a financing source to fund one-time expenditures and needed reserves or reduce District property taxes.
  • Adopt realistic annual budgets based on historical or other known trends.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated, or indicated they planned to initiate, corrective action.