New York State Comptroller Thomas
P. DiNapoli announced the following audits and reports were issued were issued
on April 20, 2023.

Links to material
posted on the Internet highlighted in COLOR.

 

Chappaqua Central School District – Fixed Assets
(Westchester County) District officials did not properly
monitor and account for the district’s fixed assets. Officials maintained
incomplete and inaccurate records and did not perform a physical inventory
count since 2018. Of the 164 assets reviewed, 148, worth $220,708, were not
recorded on the district’s original asset list and 18 assets worth $25,022 did
not have asset tags, as required. Twenty-five disposed assets were not removed
from the district’s original asset list. Also, officials could not determine
whether four assets were disposed of (sold) or retired (obsolete). The
district’s fixed asset policy did not require, and officials did not perform, a
periodic inventory count or an unannounced asset count for district
departments.

 

Williamsville Central School District – Financial
Management (Erie County) The board and district officials
did not properly manage the district’s fund balance and reserves. As a result,
the district levied more taxes than needed to fund operations. The board and
district officials consistently overestimated general fund appropriations from
2018-19 through 2021-22 by a total of $47 million and appropriated $22 million
of fund balance that was not needed or used. Officials also adopted annual
budgets during the same period that gave the impression that the district would
have operating deficits totaling $38 million when it actually had operating
surpluses totaling $40 million, for a difference totaling $78 million.

 

Stamford Central School District – Fund Balance
Management (Delaware County) The board and district
officials did not effectively manage the district’s fund balance. As a result,
they were not transparent with taxpayers, and the district levied more taxes
than needed to fund operations. 
The board overestimated appropriations from the 2019-20 through 2021-22 fiscal
years by an average of $1.4 million (14%) and planned to use fund balance to
cover operating deficits when the district realized operating surpluses.
Surplus fund balance exceeded the 4% statutory limit in two of the last three
fiscal years by approximately $700,000 (6.8 percentage points) and $1.9 million
(18.7 percentage points). Four of the district’s 11 reserves were not
reasonably funded, or used to pay related expenditures, during the last three
fiscal years. For example, the retirement contributions for employees reserve
balance of $602,749 was sufficient to cover expenditures for five years.

 

Bayport-Bluepoint Union Free School District –
Nonstudent Network User Accounts (Suffolk County) District
officials did not establish adequate network controls for nonstudent user
accounts to help prevent unauthorized access. As a result, the district has an
increased risk of unauthorized access to and use of the district network and
potential loss of important data. In addition to sensitive information
technology (IT) control weaknesses that were confidentially communicated to
officials, auditors found the database coordinator did not disable 281
nonstudent network user accounts that are unneeded or unnecessary to prevent
unauthorized access and use.

 

Village of Suffern – Budget Review (Rockland County)
Based on the results of our review, auditors found that the significant revenue
and expenditure projections in the 2023-24 proposed budget were reasonable.
Estimates for metered water revenues and sewer rent revenues appear
overestimated and should be reviewed by the board. The village’s tentative
budget includes a tax levy of $12,090,011, which is within the limit
established by law.

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