Audit Objective

Determine whether Saratoga Springs City School District (District) officials procured goods and services according to Board of Education (Board) policies and statutory requirements.

Key Findings

District officials did not always procure goods and services according to policy requirements or maintain adequate supporting documentation for the purchases. This increased the risk that the District may have overpaid for goods and services and appear to have used favoritism. Officials did not:

• Comply with policy requirements when procuring four (13 percent) purchase or public works contracts totaling $36,783 (we reviewed 30 contracts totaling $1.2 million).
• Maintain contract pricing documentation for 13 contracts (43 percent) totaling $471,156.
• Safeguard the purchasing agent’s electronic signature.

Key Recommendations

• Comply with purchasing policies when procuring purchase and public works contracts that are not subject to competitive bidding requirements.
• Maintain adequate documentation to support pricing and purchase decisions.
• Ensure that the purchasing agent maintains custody of his electronic signature and directly supervises the purchase order approval process when others use his signature.

Except as specified in Appendix A, District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the District’s response letter.