Officials did not accurately pay salaries and wages to 10 of the 67 employees we reviewed and could not support payments made to 54 employees totaling $41,626.

Employee compensation payments were not always accurate, approved or supported. District officials did not ensure pay rates were accurate or that compensation was paid in compliance with employment agreements. As a result, payroll errors went undetected and resulted in unnecessary and erroneous payroll payments.

District officials did not always properly track or inventory IT assets, maintain complete IT inventory records or safeguard IT assets. As a result, officials cannot assure taxpayers that all IT assets are adequately accounted for and would be detected if lost, stolen or misused.

Claims that we reviewed were supported and for appropriate purposes but did not have evidence that they were audited and approved before payment. As a result, the District has an increased risk that unauthorized claims could be paid. The Board and District officials did not provide effective oversight of claim processing and payment.

Determine whether the Village of Afton (Village) Board properly audited claims and monitored non-payroll disbursements.

Determine whether Copiague Union Free School District (District) officials properly managed nonstudent network user accounts and financial software access controls.

Determine whether the City of Salamanca (City) City Comptroller’s (Comptroller) collections were recorded and deposited in a timely and accurate manner.

Determine whether Piseco Common School District (District) officials invested in accordance with statutory requirements.

Determine whether OnTECH Charter High School (School) officials ensured information technology (IT) systems were adequately secured and protected against unauthorized use, access and loss.

Determine whether Beacon City School District (District) officials ensured network user accounts were adequately managed.

District officials did not adequately manage nonstudent network and local user account access or develop an IT contingency plan. As a result, the District’s IT system and its personal, private and sensitive information (PPSI) may be accessible to unauthorized users. Officials also have less assurance that, in the event of a disruption or disaster such as a ransomware attack, employees and other responsible parties would be able to react quickly and effectively to help resume, restore, repair and/or rebuild critical IT systems or data in a timely manner.

The Board and Treasurer did not appropriately and securely execute check signatures for non-payroll checks between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2023.Although the checks we reviewed were disbursed for what appear to be legitimate District purposes, when the Treasurer does not maintain control of his electronic signature, the chances of unauthorized checks being signed increases.

District officials did not monitor users’ compliance with the District’s AUP.

The Board did not develop realistic budgets. Estimated revenues were underestimated and appropriated fund balance was not used, resulting in unrestricted fund balance in the general and highway funds that exceeded the Town’s fund balance policy (policy) limit.

The Board did not develop realistic budgets. Budgeted appropriations were overestimated in the town-wide (TW) general and highway funds, and estimated revenues were underestimated in the town-outside-village (TOV) highway fund resulting in operating surpluses totaling $677,000.

District officials did not properly bill tuition for nonresident foster care students enrolled at the District. As a result, as of September 30, 2023, officials had not billed or underbilled $40,803 of the $71,192 (57 percent) in tuition it was entitled to and billed and collected $12,452 in tuition it was not entitled to for the 2019-20 through 2021-22 school years.

District officials did not always approve, support and monitor overtime. As a result, overtime expenditures exceeded budgeted overtime by $49,576 during the audit period and officials increased the risk that employees may have been paid for unnecessary overtime.

District officials did not claim State aid totaling $145,164 for nonresident homeless students during the audit period because the Superintendent was not aware that the District could claim this aid.

As of June 30, 2023, Questar BOCES had IT assets with an original cost of $28.5 million (44,305 items) accounted for in its inventory that were either purchased for a component school district or for use at Questar BOCES. Based on our review, Questar BOCES officials properly accounted for all 817 IT hardware assets reviewed with a purchase value of $612,386 and ensured assets declared surplus were properly disposed.

Town officials ensured the CPF collections we examined were properly supported, recorded and deposited in full and that disbursements were proper and supported. Town officials also ensured the debt service payments we reviewed were for legitimate CPF purposes and properly allocated.