Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District Claims Processing, Purchasing and Employee Separation Payments - Exeuctive Summary The Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District (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. The District’s Business Administrator serves as the purchasing agent, and also served informally as the District’s claims auditor until January 2006. The District has collective bargaining agreements with District staff and individual contracts with the Superintendent and the Business Administrator. Scope and Objective The objective of our audit was to evaluate the District’s internal control system for the period July 1, 2004 to August 2, 2006. We expanded our scope period back to June 30, 2003 for a selected number of separation benefit payouts. Our audit addressed the following related questions:
Audit Results We found that the claims audit processes established by the Board were inadequate. The District did not appoint a claims auditor until January 2006, and has not established comprehensive policies regarding the expenses the District will pay for and how they should be documented, or established guidelines for the claims auditor to follow. Of the 95 claims we examined valued at $425,680, 43 claims totaling $141,724 were not properly approved, documented and/or itemized. |