New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced his office completed audits of the Cincinnatus Central School District, Johnsburg Central School District, Lewiston-Porter Central School District, Northport-East Northport Union Free School District, Springs Union Free School District and the Wayne Central School District.

“In an era of limited resources and increased accountability, it’s critical that schools make every dollar count,” DiNapoli said. “By auditing school district and charter school finances and operations, my office continues to provide taxpayers the assurance that their money is being spent appropriately and effectively.”

Cincinnatus Central School District – Fund Balance and Reserves (Chenango County)

The district did not plan for the funding or use of reserves. The district’s fund balance exceeded the statutory limit for two out of the last three years. Furthermore, district officials overfunded four of the district’s seven reserve funds. By accumulating funds without a clear plan for the future intended use, tax levies were higher than necessary.

Johnsburg Central School District – Payroll (Warren County)

The district’s new timekeeping system did not adequately and accurately document the time employees worked. Once the district transitioned to using a fingerprint time clock it resulted in less accountability over timekeeping because it was not used effectively. As a result, some employees’ leave was not properly approved and documented on the time records or the central leave record.

Lewiston Porter Central School District – Financial Condition (Niagara County)

Since 2010, the district appropriated more than $4.7 million in fund balance to finance appropriations. This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the district’s total fund balance. In addition, the district improperly used two reserves to help fund general fund operations during the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Northport-East Northport Union Free School District – Financial Condition (Suffolk County)

The district significantly overestimated expenditures in its adopted budgets. For the five years reviewed, total actual revenues exceeded expenditures by almost $13 million and only $5 million of the nearly $21.5 million of appropriated fund balance was used to finance operations.

Springs Union Free School District – Financial Condition and Leave Accruals (Suffolk County)

In fiscal years 2010-11 through 2012-13, the district budgeted to use an average of $811,000 of fund balance to fund the ensuing year’s expenditures. However, the district did not use these funds as intended because revenues exceeded expenditures by an average of more than $1.7 million in each of these years. As a result, the district’s unrestricted fund balance was 15 percent of the 2013-14 budgeted appropriations, nearly four times the 4 percent statutory limit.

Wayne Central School District – Financial Management and Property Purchase and Disposal (Wayne County)

District officials have made limited improvements in their budgeting and financial practices in response to prior audit findings. Of the six previous audit recommendations, one recommendation was implemented, three recommendations were partially implemented and two recommendations were not implemented.

For access to state and local government spending and more than 50,000 state contracts, visit http://www.openbooknewyork.com/. The easy-to-use website was created by Comptroller DiNapoli to promote openness in government and provide taxpayers with better access to the financial workings of government.