Audit Objective 

Determine whether the Fire Island Union Free School District (District) Board of Education (Board) properly audited claims before payment.

Key Findings 

The Board did not properly audit claims before payment. As a result, there was an increased risk that improper or unsupported payments could have been made and may not have been detected and corrected.

Because the Board did not develop and adhere to adequate guidance on performing its claims audit duties, of the 198 claims totaling $258,969 that we reviewed, 51 claims totaling $82,743 could not be properly audited due to one or more of the following: 

• 17 claims totaling $59,992 contained 53 confirming purchase orders (issued after goods or services were received), which prevented the Board’s approval and price verification.
• 31 claims totaling $20,714 were missing 28 requestor copies of purchase orders and signatures on another five requestor copies, which prevented the Board from ensuring that the Business Office had authorized payment for the goods and services received.
• 10 claims totaling $10,980 were missing the audit checklist required by District procedure to verify that all supporting documentation was available for audit of the claim.

Key Recommendations 

• Update written policies to define the Board’s claims audit duties.
• Ensure that claims contain sufficient supporting documentation before approving them for payment.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on issues that were raised in the District’s response letter.