Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to determine whether City officials provided effective oversight for capital projects for the period January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2011.

Background

The City of Rome is located in Oneida County and has a population of approximately 33,700 residents. The eight-member Common Council is the City’s legislative branch and comprises the elected Council President and seven elected members. The City’s budgeted general fund expenditures for the 2011 fiscal year were $40.7 million. During our audit period, the City has undertaken 10 capital projects totaling $6.9 million. Capital project expenditures for the last three fiscal years totaled $8.5 million.

Key Findings

• While City officials had procedures to properly authorize capital projects, they did not adequately monitor financial activity or close completed projects in a timely manner. As a result, the City had 87 open capital projects, only nine of which were active – leaving 78 projects that had been completed, but still open in the records.
• Forty-eight of the completed projects had surplus balances totaling $3.4 million, $2.4 million of which must be transferred to the debt service fund or reserve for debt. The remaining 30 completed projects had deficits totaling $3 million because they either did not receive the expected financing or were over-expended.

Key Recommendations

• Monitor each project by requiring the Treasurer to submit periodic reports that show actual revenues and expenditures over the life of the project compared to the approved budget.
• Close out the remaining capital projects that are complete and develop procedures to ensure that current and future capital projects are closed in a timely manner and any cash or deficit remaining is accounted for properly.