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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Holland Central School District (District) Board of Education (Board) ensured that claims were adequately supported and properly audited before payment.

Key Findings

The Board did not ensure that claims were adequately supported and properly audited before payment. In addition, the current claims auditor did not receive proper training to fulfill the Board’s claims audit responsibilities. As a result, there is an increased risk that improper or unsupported payments could be made and not be detected and corrected.

• We reviewed 75 of 1,661 claims totaling $1,804,573 and found that claims were not always adequately supported as follows:
  • 47 claims totaling $596,495 lacked adequate documentation to demonstrate that officials complied with the procurement policy.
  • 13 claims totaling $59,956 lacked sufficient supporting documentation such as itemized invoices or detail of services provided.
• Further, the Board did not comply with Education Law¹ and its own policy when it appointed the Superintendent’s secretary as the Board’s claims auditor for 12 of 14 months.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that the claims auditor is properly trained and that claims contain sufficient supporting documentation and are audited and approved before payment.

District officials generally agreed with our findings and recommendations and indicated that they have initiated or planned to initiate corrective action.

¹ New York State Education Law Section 1709 (20-a)