Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to evaluate internal controls over purchasing for the period January 1, 2012, through June 19, 2013.

Background

The Town of Middlebury is located in Wyoming County and serves a population of approximately 1,440 residents. The Town is governed by a five-member elected Town Board composed of a Town Supervisor and four council members. For the 2012 fiscal year, budgeted appropriations totaled $221,909 for the general fund and $747,232 for the highway fund.

Key Findings

We tested purchases made in 2012 from five vendors totaling $100,943 for compliance with the Town’s procurement policy and found the following:

• The Town purchased $10,362 of unleaded gasoline and $33,068 of diesel fuel from a local vendor. These commodities were not competitively bid as required by the policy. We compared the price that the Town paid with the State contract price and noted that the Town could have saved approximately $1,167 in 2012 had the fuel been purchased from the State contract vendor.
• The Town purchased a tractor in April 2012 for $38,200 without publicly soliciting bids as required.
• Tires of various sizes were purchased from a local vendor six times during 2012, totaling $9,140. The Highway Superintendent only obtained quotes from vendors for one of the six purchases, costing $424, which was from the vendor who quoted the lowest price.
• In 2012, the Highway Superintendent purchased air, oil and hydraulic filters totaling $2,213 but did not obtain any quotes as required. We compared the costs of the filters purchased to the costs from other vendors in the area and noted that the Town paid reasonable prices for these items.

Key Recommendations

• Monitor for compliance with the adopted procurement policy during its audit of claims.
• Annually review the procurement policy as required, and adopt revisions as needed.
• Evaluate State contracts, particularly the one for fuel, to determine whether cost savings may be achieved.