New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced his office completed audits of the Adirondack Central School District, Greenburgh Central School District, Greenville Central School District and the LaFargeville Central School District.

State Comptroller DiNapoli has made it a priority to audit school district, BOCES and charter school finances and operations to ensure money is being spent appropriately and effectively. The Comptroller’s audits are designed to help schools improve their financial management practices and ensure proper policies and procedures are in place to protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud and abuse. New York’s school districts annually spend approximately $60 billion in federal, state and local funds.

For additional background or a comment on a specific audit, please contact Brian Butry at 518-474-4015 or email: [email protected].

Adirondack Central School District – Financial Condition (Lewis County)

In recent years, the board has balanced its adopted budgets with appropriations of fund balance and reserves, which has led to planned operating deficits from 2012-13 through 2014-15 and a $2.2 million decline in the general fund balance. While the district maintained over $5.7 million in its reserve funds through 2014-15, it did not use the reserve funds as appropriated in the budgets. Auditors found the district’s actual unrestricted fund balance was approximately $527,000 at the close of 2014-15, representing a 63 percent decline from 2012-13.

Greenburgh Central School District – Payroll and Reserve Funds (Westchester County)

District officials have not provided employees with written procedures over payroll, did not adequately segregate payroll duties or establish sufficient compensating controls, did not adequately review payrolls before certifying them and did not pre-approved overtime and leave requests as required. Auditors also found that only two of the reserves (tax certiorari and retirement contribution) have been used over the last five years. The other four reserves have not had any funds added or used over the last five years except for accumulated interest allowed by law. There is no clear plan for the future use of any of the district’s six reserves. 

Greenville Central School District – Information Technology (Greene County)

The board and district officials have not ensured internal controls over information technology (IT) are appropriately designed and operating effectively. The board did not establish adequate IT policies and procedures. District officials did not maintain accurate and up-to-date IT hardware inventory records. Service level agreements for IT consultants also do not adequately identify who is responsible for various aspects of the district’s IT environment. District officials have also not ensured that district employees received adequate cyber security training. 

LaFargeville Central School District – Financial Condition (Jefferson County)

From fiscal years 2012-13 through 2014-15, the board overestimated appropriations by an average of $1.4 million or 15 percent, and appropriated an average of $1 million in fund balance annually in its adopted budget. These practices made it appear that the district was in compliance with the statutory limit on unrestricted fund balance. However, because the board overestimated appropriations in each of these years, the district generated operating surpluses and, therefore, none of the appropriated fund balance was actually used. After factoring in the unused appropriated fund balance, the recalculated unrestricted fund balance over the three-year period averaged 13.6 percent of the ensuing years’ appropriations.

For access to state and local government spending and nearly 50,000 state contracts, visit OpenBookNY. 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.