Audit Objective
Did the Montauk Fire District (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) pay Advanced Life Support (ALS) employees only the amounts to which they were entitled?
Audit Period
January 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024
Understanding the Program
Payroll is one of the largest components of a fire district’s budget. The Board is responsible for establishing and approving all salaries and hourly wages by position or as part of a collective bargaining agreement. The District’s 13 ALS employees use a combination of sign-in sheets and a biometric timeclock (finger reader) to help ensure that they are properly compensated for all the time worked. In 2023, the District’s payroll for ALS employees totaled $328,847, which was 64 percent of the District’s total budgeted payroll of $510,000.
Audit Summary
The Board did not pay ALS employees only the amounts to which they were entitled. The Board overpaid its 13 ALS employees a total of $9,386. A lack of oversight and inadequate controls led to the overpayments occurring. For example:
- The Secretary-Treasurer, when implementing a Board-authorized pay increase for ALS employees, increased the hourly rate by $3 per hour instead of $2 per hour for each ALS employee. The Secretary-Treasurer also applied the increase nine days before the effective date. Because there was a lack of Board oversight and controls, the error and early implementation of the increased hourly rate went undetected, resulting in a total overpayment of $8,690.
- The District’s inconsistent time records and the Secretary-Treasurer not reconciling time records before processing payroll enabled three ALS employees to overlap their shifts at the District and the neighboring Amagansett Fire District (AFD). Consequently, these three individuals were overpaid $696 for 29 instances of overlapping shifts.
Had the Chairman of the Board (Chairman), who was responsible for reviewing the payroll, checked the calculations or verified that ALS employee hourly rates were correct before certifying the payroll each pay period, the payroll calculation errors may have been identified and corrected.
The report includes six recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the District’s ability to accurately pay ALS employees. District officials disagreed with certain aspects of our findings but indicated they plan to initiate corrective action. Appendix C includes our comments on issues raised in the District’s response letter.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the State Comptroller’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix D.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 181-b of New York State Town Law, a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and forwarded to our office within 90 days. To the extent practicable, implementation of the CAP must begin by the end of the next fiscal year. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review.