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Objective

Determine whether Fabius-Pompey Central School District (District) claims were adequately documented, for appropriate purposes and were properly audited and approved prior to payment.

Key Findings

We reviewed 100 claims totaling approximately $5.3 million and found that they were adequately documented and for appropriate purposes. However, the District needs to improve the claims audit process because some claims were not subject to an independent claims audit and some were not properly approved before they were paid, as follows:

• Twelve claims totaling approximately $3.3 million paid to the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) were inappropriately audited by a BOCES employee who functioned as the District’s claims auditor.
• The Treasurer paid five claims totaling $11,692 without the required claims auditor’s certification and authorization.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that BOCES claims are audited and approved by someone other than the BOCES claims auditor.
• Only pay claims that have been approved and certified for payment by the claims auditor.

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