Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to assess the District’s internal controls for the period January 1, 2012 through October 16, 2013.

Background

The Caledonia Joint Fire District is located in Livingston County, and is governed by a Board of Fire Commissioners that comprises five elected members. The District's 2013 budget totaled $292,725.

Key Findings

• The Treasurer processes and pays certain claims prior to the Board’s audit which are not statutorily authorized for payment in advance of audit.
• The Board did not use the prescribed budget format, and adopted budgets which did not include the required comparisons to prior years, the detail for non-property tax revenue estimates, or estimated fund balance. Furthermore, the monthly reports provided by the Treasurer include only year-to-date information and do not provide detail for the current month’s activities.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that all claims have appropriate supporting documentation, and (other than exceptions allowed by Town Law) are audited and approved by the Board before the Treasurer pays the claims.
• Prepare and adopt budgets in the prescribed format and ensure that the Treasurer provides sufficiently detailed monthly reports for the Board to monitor operations against the budget.