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District pleased with NYS Comptroller audit
results
The Watervliet City School District recently
received its final report from the New York State Comptroller’s
Office summarizing the findings of an audit on the district’s fiscal
operations from July 2005-April 2007.
The results of the audit showed that overall, adequate and
appropriate internal controls are in place within the district to
reduce the possibility of theft, fraud and abuse.
“It is always a good idea to have a system of checks and balances in
place, especially when dealing with the public’s money, so we really
welcomed this review by the comptroller,” said Paul Padalino,
Watervliet City Schools Superintendent. “We learned a lot through
this process and it is going to help how we do business in the
future.”
Watervliet is one of nearly 200 public school districts across New
York to be audited, as is now required by the state. In 2005,
legislation was passed mandating that all public school districts,
BOCES, and charter schools be audited by the state comptroller at
least once prior to 2010.
Throughout the past year, state auditors conducted a comprehensive
review of the district’s financial management practices to ensure
that appropriate safeguards were in place to protect the financial
assets of the school district. Auditors also recommended areas where
the district could improve internal controls to increase fiscal
accountability.
“We are always interested in identifying ways to improve upon our
financial practices,” said Padalino. “The state comptroller’s office
provided several recommendations that will help us improve our
existing procedures.”
Several measures have already been introduced to address
recommendations made by the state within the audit report:
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Responsibilities have been reassigned
within the Business Office and a part-time staff member has been
hired to achieve greater segregation of duties.
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The district is developing a procedure to
address payments made for earned and accrued vacation leave as
part of employee separation agreements. The procedures will be
outlined in a written document and will call for two separate
individuals to independently perform and verify the vacation
leave payment calculation.
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The district, with the assistance of legal
counsel, will be reviewing all past separation agreements to
ensure that no overpayment has occurred.
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The district has developed and implemented
responsible budgets for fiscal years 2006-07 and 2007-08, and
will continue to do so.
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A formal disaster recovery plan for
computerized student and financial data has been developed and
will be presented to the Board of Education for approval.
The complete audit report, including the
district response, is available for public review during regular
business hours (Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) at
the District Office, located at 1245 Hillside Drive, Watervliet NY
12189. You can also view the report online by
clicking here.
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