Audit Objective
Determine whether any Town of Homer (Town) officials had prohibited interests in Town contracts.
Key Findings
One Board member is the president and owner of a welding company which provided repair work to the Town, totaling $8,571, during our audit period. As president and owner of the welding company, the Board member had a prohibited conflict of interest in the welding company’s contracts with the Town pursuant to New York State General Municipal Law Article 18.
We also found no evidence that Town officials complied with the Town’s procurement policy by obtaining two verbal quotes prior to awarding contracts to the Board member’s company.
Key Recommendations
- Ensure that officials and employees are familiar with and follow the requirements of New York State General Municipal Law Article 18 as they relate to conflicts of interest.
- Adopt procedures to help prevent prohibited interests in contracts.
Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.