Purpose of Audit

The purposes of our audit were to review the Town’s accounting records and reports, and assess the internal controls over justice court operations for the period January 1, 2012, through May 22, 2013. We expanded the scope of our audit back to January 1, 2010, for our review of financial reports and justice court records.

Background

The Town of Carroll (Town) is located in Chautauqua County and has approximately 3,500 residents. The Town is governed by an elected Town Board (Board) which consists of a Supervisor and four council members. General fund appropriations for the 2013 fiscal year totaled $555,463 and were funded primarily with real property taxes and State aid. Two Town justices have jurisdiction over certain criminal and civil matters and motor vehicle and traffic violations.

Key Findings

• The Town did not file its 2011 or 2012 AUD with the Office of the State Comptroller, and it did not request a 30-day extension in 2011 or 2012.
• The Supervisor did not submit to the Board the required detailed statement of all moneys received and disbursed during the month, accurate cash balances for the Town’s accounts, any type of budget information on a timely basis or a list of reconciled bank account balances on a monthly basis.
• The justices did not perform a monthly accountability.
• Town officials could not prove they performed a thorough audit of the Court’s records in 2012. There was a lack of documentation to indicate the time period covered by the audit, the extent of the Board’s review or whether the Board found any exceptions, discrepancies or items needing corrective action.

Key Recommendations

• Submit accurate AUDs to the Office of the State Comptroller in a timely manner and ensure that the AUDs are fully supported by the accounting records.
• Provide the Board with a monthly Supervisor’s report that includes an accounting of all cash receipts and disbursements. Also, the Supervisor should consider including cash balances and budget-to-actual updates for all funds.
• Perform monthly accountabilities and should promptly investigate and resolve any discrepancies. The Justices should report and remit any unidentified balances to the JCF.
• Perform a thorough audit of the Court’s records on an annual basis and document evidence of the audit in the minutes of its proceedings indicating the audit tests performed, the records reviewed, and the results of the audit.