Audit Objective 

Determine whether the Town of Allen (Town) Town Board (Board) properly audited and approved claims prior to payment.

Key Findings 

The Board did not properly audit and approve all claims prior to payment. As a result, there was an increased risk that improper or unsupported payments could have been made and may not have been detected and corrected, and that Town officials paid more for goods and services than necessary. All 105 claims we reviewed had one or more exception, including: 

• 103 claims totaling approximately $108,000 were not sufficiently itemized and should not have been approved for payment.
• 47 claims totaling approximately $41,000 did not contain sufficient supporting documentation to verify that the purchases were properly authorized by an appropriate department head.

Two claims totaling approximately $160 for membership dues could not be located and provided for our review. As a result, we could not confirm whether they were for a valid and legal Town purpose.

Recommendations 

The audit report includes eight recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Board’s claims audit practices.

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