Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to determine if Court officials properly collected, reported and remitted moneys on behalf of the Court for the period January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2013.

Background

The Town covers 72 square miles and has approximately 27,900 residents. The Town Board (Board), comprising a Supervisor and four Board Members, is the governing body responsible for overseeing the Court’s general management and financial operations. The Court’s 2013 budgeted appropriations were $320,450. During the audit period, the Court operated with two Justices, Robert McNally and Michael Muller, and four Court clerks. According to the Court’s System, the Court collected 16,856 payments totaling approximately $2.23 million in fines, surcharges and fees from January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.

Key Findings

Based on our testing, we found the Court has properly collected and remitted moneys received. However,

• The Court is not reporting scofflaw traffic violation offenders to the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in a timely manner.
• We found weaknesses with the Court’s information technology system (System).

Key Recommendations

• Periodically review and reconcile the DMV pending-ticket log with the Court’s caseload activity to ensure that tickets are properly reported, as paid or enforced, in a timely manner.
• Assess the risk areas in the Court software, such as an inadequate audit trail and insufficient automated controls.