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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Village imposed refuse fees in excess of related expenditures and maintained appropriate records for refuse collection operations.

Key Findings

• The Village charged residents $400,356 for refuse collection which exceeded the outsourced contracted cost of $215,352 for collection without adequate substantiation for the excess charges.
• The refuse budget does not include estimated revenues and there was no support for the budgeted salaries and overhead of $179,648 separate from the contracted cost.
• Revenues and expenditures for refuse collection are comingled with general fund revenues and expenditures.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that fees for the refuse district do not exceed the expenditures.
• Ensure that the refuse collection budget includes estimated revenues and sufficient detail for the appropriations.
• Account for refuse revenues and expenditures so they are separately identifiable from general fund revenues and expenditures.

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