Audit Objective
Determine whether highway service labor costs associated with the Town of Chemung (Chemung) and Town of Ashland (Ashland) Intermunicipal Consolidation Agreement (Agreement) were monitored and equitable.
Key Findings
Chemung officials did not adequately monitor the Agreement’s highway service labor costs. Officials did not establish procedures to evaluate labor costs by town. For example:
- Timecard information was not used to monitor labor costs for services provided to Ashland.
- Highway employees’ timecards did not always identify their work location needed to allocate costs.
As a result, labor costs were not equitable, and Chemung could have incurred approximately $23,000 in additional costs to provide services to Ashland. Had Chemung officials monitored costs associated with the Agreement, Chemung may have avoided incurring additional labor costs.
Key Recommendations
- Track labor hours worked for each town to determine Ashland’s cost of services.
- Evaluate and analyze services being rendered on a quarterly basis.
- Annually document the evaluation of the Agreement’s effectiveness.
Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment on an issue that was raised in the Town’s response letter.