Rush-Henrietta Central School District – Credit Cards and Purchase Cards (2024M-122)

Issued Date

January 03, 2025

Audit Objective

Determine whether Rush-Henrietta Central School District (District) officials ensured credit card and purchase card charges were properly approved, supported and for appropriate District purposes.

Key Findings

District officials did not ensure that all credit card and purchase card charges were properly approved and supported. Therefore, it could not be determined whether all charges were for appropriate District purposes. Additionally, officials did not ensure that credit card charges were reconciled in a timely manner and audited, as required, prior to payment.

We reviewed 680 credit card and purchase card charges totaling $168,831 and determined that 538 charges totaling $156,982 had one or more exceptions:

410 charges totaling $144,142 were paid prior to audit and approval by the claims auditor.
355 charges totaling $104,258 required pre-approval but were not properly approved.
82 charges totaling $6,199 for the Facilities and Transportation Departments were not independently audited. The claims auditor who reviewed and approved the charges also maintained and administered the purchase cards for these departments.
288 charges totaling $64,925 did not have adequate support including a specific District purpose, a receipt or itemized receipt or the required business expense reports.

Key Recommendations

We provided nine recommendations to help District officials improve the District’s credit card and purchase card purchasing processes.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they will take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment on the District’s response letter.

Audit Period

July 1, 2022 – September 17, 2024

Background

The District is located in the Towns of Brighton, Henrietta, Pittsford and Rush in Monroe County. The elected seven-member Board of Education (Board) is responsible for managing and controlling the District’s financial and educational affairs. The current Board President assumed this role as of July 1, 2023. The Superintendent of Schools (Superintendent) is the chief executive officer and is responsible for the District’s day-to-day management under the Board’s direction. The current Superintendent started in this position on April 3, 2023.

The Assistant Superintendent for School Finance and Operations (Assistant Superintendent) is responsible for day-to-day financial operations, including purchasing, with the assistance of other business office staff. The Treasurer and accounts payable clerk are responsible for the reconciliation of credit card and purchase card statements, respectively, and the Treasurer is responsible for the disbursement of funds. The claims auditor is responsible for ensuring claims are properly supported and for appropriate District purposes.