Audit Objective

To determine whether the Town of Middleburgh (Town) Town Board (Board) properly audited claims prior to payment.

Key Findings

The Board did not properly audit claims prior to approving them for payment. As a result, the risk is increased that claims could have been paid for inappropriate purposes. From our review of 184 claims totaling $340,204 we found:

• The Board approved all claims without a thorough and deliberate review.
• 11 debit card purchases totaling $2,425 were not approved by the Board prior to purchase, two of which were unsupported.
• Four claims totaling $10,064 were approved without evidence of compliance with the Town’s procurement policy.

Key Recommendations

• Conduct a thorough and deliberate audit of all claims prior to approving them for payment.
• Adequately document the justification for emergency purchases and for using sole source vendors and the reasons why solicitation of quotes is not in the Town’s best interest.
• Discontinue use of the Town debit card.

Town officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated they will take corrective action.