Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to evaluate the Town’s information technology (IT) controls and multiyear planning for the period January 1, 2016 through March 24, 2017.

Background

The Town of Geneseo is located in Livingston County and has a population of approximately 10,600. The Town is governed by an elected five-member Town Board. Budgeted appropriations for 2017 total approximately $3.37 million.

Key Findings

• The Board has not adopted policies to sufficiently protect the Town’s IT assets.
• The Board did not adopt an IT disaster recovery plan.
• The Board has not adopted a comprehensive multiyear financial and capital plan.
• The Town accumulated excessive fund balance in multiple funds.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt comprehensive IT policies related to password management, user accounts, access and administrative rights, backups, adjustments, audit trail reports, restricting personal use and connecting personally owned devices to Town computers, sanitation and disposal of electronic media, inventory and online banking.
• Adopt a comprehensive disaster recovery plan and ensure that the plan is distributed to all essential personnel, periodically tested and updated as needed.
• Develop a comprehensive multiyear financial and capital plan to establish long-term objectives for funding long-term needs.
• Update the fund balance policy to include the reasonable amount of fund balance to be maintained for each of the Town funds and develop a plan to reduce unrestricted fund balance in a manner that benefits Town residents.