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NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Contact: Press Office 518-474-4015

Comptroller DiNapoli Releases School District Audits

April 10, 2019

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the following school district audits have been issued.

Elwood Union Free School District – Claims Auditing (Suffolk County)

District officials implemented a well-designed system of internal controls over the claims audit process. Due to this system of internal controls, auditors designed our testing to determine if these procedures were being followed consistently. They reviewed 110 claims totaling $414,749 of the 1,104 checks paid during our audit and found that the control procedures were followed.

Enterprise Charter School – Procurement (Erie County)

School officials did not always obtain competitive pricing in compliance with the school’s procurement policy or publicly advertise for capital improvement projects. A review of 74 purchases totaling approximately $898,000 found that school officials did not obtain quotes or use the request for proposals (RFP’s) process for 27 purchases totaling approximately $214,000. In addition, school officials did not verify that the school received the awarded New York State Office of General Services contract pricing for goods procured.

General Brown Central School District – Building Renovation Project (Jefferson County)

District officials properly established the budget for the three school buildings and garage renovation project. In addition, work was completed within the scope of the project. Auditors reviewed 34 check disbursements totaling over $4.8 million for project claims paid during the audit period and determined they were supported by adequate documentation and properly audited.

South Glens Falls Central School District – Fund Balance (Saratoga County)

District officials should improve their accounting practices to accurately report fund balance. While the district’s unrestricted fund balance was reported as being within the legal limit for the past five years, the unrestricted fund balance was actually underreported during this time period. District officials also overstated their encumbrances by at least $1.8 million, accrued liabilities by $988,921 and accounts payable by $172,539. As a result of these errors, the district’s year-ending unrestricted fund balance was understated at year end for 2012-13 through 2016-17. After making adjustments to correct the errors noted, the unrestricted fund balance exceeded the statutory limit in each of the five years.