Audit Objective 

Determine whether the Town of Warsaw (Town) Town Clerk/Tax Collector (Clerk) remitted all collections as required by New York State Town Law (Town Law).

Key Findings 

The Clerk did not remit collections to the Town Supervisor (Supervisor) and Wyoming County (County) Treasurer within the timeframes established by Town Law Section 35. As a result, funds were not provided to finance Town and County operations in a timely manner.

• The Clerk did not remit taxes totaling approximately $1.3 million to the Supervisor at least weekly and as required by Town Law.
• The Clerk made one payment totaling approximately $3.1 million to the County Treasurer in April 2024, instead of paying three separate required payments totaling approximately $2.8 million in February, $156,000 in March and $198,000 in April.
• The Board did not audit the Clerk’s records as required.

Recommendations 

The audit report includes three recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s tax collection practices.

Town officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated that they planned to initiate corrective action.