Bloomfield Central School District

Internal Controls Over Financial Activities - Introduction

Background

The Bloomfield Central School District (District) is located in the Towns of East Bloomfield, West Bloomfield, Bristol, Victor, Canandaigua and Richmond, Ontario County. The District is governed by the Board of Education (Board) which comprises seven elected members. The Board is responsible for the general management and control of the District’s financial and educational affairs. The Superintendent of Schools (Superintendent) is the chief executive officer of the District and is responsible, along with other administrative staff, for the day-to-day management of the District under the direction of the Board.

There are two schools in operation within the District, with approximately 1100 students and 200 employees. The District’s budgeted expenditures for the 2006-07 fiscal year were about $16 million, funded primarily with State aid, real property taxes and grants.

The District payroll clerk is responsible for processing District payroll transactions. In addition, the Board has appointed a claims auditor to audit and approve claim vouchers for payment.

Objective

The objective of our audit was to evaluate internal controls over selected financial activities. Our audit addressed the following related questions:

• Are internal controls over selected financial activities appropriately designed and operating effectively to adequately safeguard district assets?

Scope and Methodology

During this audit we examined the adequacy of internal controls over selected financial activities of the District for the period July 1, 2005 to May 3, 2007.

We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS). More information on such standards and the methodology used in performing this audit are included in Appendix B of this report.

Comments of District Officials

The results of our audit and recommendations have been discussed with District officials and their comments, which appear in Appendix A, have been considered in preparing this report. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.

The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 35 of the General Municipal Law, Section 2116-a (3)(c) of the Education Law and Section 170.12 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education, the Board must approve a corrective action plan that addresses the findings in this report, forward the plan to our office within 90 days, forward a copy of the plan to the Commissioner of Education, and make the plan available for public review in the District Clerk’s office. For guidance in preparing the plan of action, the Board should refer to applicable sections in the publication issued by the Office of the State Comptroller entitled Local Government Management Guide.