Background

The Bronxville Union Free School District (District) is located in the Village of Bronxville, Westchester 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 three schools in operation within the District, with approximately 1,550 students and 250 employees. The District’s budgeted expenditures for the 2005-06 fiscal year were $36.9 million, and for the 2006-07 fiscal year the budgeted expenditures were $39.4 million, which were funded primarily with real property taxes and State aid.

The District’s purchasing agent is responsible for implementing the District’s purchasing policy and complying with laws pertinent to purchasing goods and services. The Board incorporated pertinent purchasing laws into its adopted purchasing policy which governs District’s purchasing and related activities.

Objective

The objective of our audit was to determine if the District adequately safeguarded its funds. Our audit addressed the following related question:

• Are internal controls over cash receipts and purchases appropriately designed and operating effectively to protect District assets and ensure District procurement policies are implemented?

Scope and Methodology

Our overall goal was to assess the adequacy of internal controls put in place by officials to safeguard District assets. To accomplish this, we performed an initial assessment of internal controls so that we could design our audit to focus on those areas most at risk. Our initial assessment included evaluations of the following areas: financial oversight, cash receipts and disbursements, purchasing, and payroll and personal services. Based on that evaluation, we determined that controls appeared to be adequate in the financial areas we reviewed with the exception of cash receipts and purchasing, which had limited risk. We selected internal controls over cash receipts and purchasing during the period July 1, 2005 to February 28, 2007 for further audit testing.

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 is included in Appendix B of this report.

Comments of District Officials and Corrective Action

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.