Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to review the Supervisor’s accounting records for the period January 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012.

Background

The Town of Stratford is located in Fulton County and has a population of 610 residents. An elected five-member Town Board (Board), which consists of the Town Supervisor (Supervisor) and four Council members, governs the Town. The Town’s budgeted expenditures for the 2012 fiscal year totaled approximately $405,000 for the general fund and $580,000 for the highway fund which were funded primarily by sales tax, real property taxes, and State aid.

Key Findings

• The Supervisor assigned his accounting duties to a bookkeeper. Except for some minor exceptions, which we discussed with Town officials, we found that the accounting records were accurately maintained and the financial information included in the annual update document (AUD) filed with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) was supported by the accounting records.
• We did not find evidence in the 2011 and 2012 Board minutes that the Board audited the accounting records of the Supervisor for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. Furthermore, there was no indication that the Board had solicited the professional services of an independent public accountant to perform an audit of the records.

Key Recommendations

• Audit the Supervisor’s records and reports annually by January 20th of the following year, or engage the services of a certified public accountant or public accountant to conduct the audit.