Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to review capital project finances for the period January 1, 2015 through May 11, 2017.

Background

The Town of Cambria is located in Niagara County and has a population of approximately 5,800. The Town, which is governed by an elected five-member Town Board, provides services including highway maintenance, snow removal, water and sewer, refuse collection and general government administration. Budgeted appropriations for 2017 totaled $5.1 million.

Key Findings

• The Board did not adopt a bond resolution before issuing a bond anticipation note (BAN).
• The Town issued a short-term BAN for $815,000 to fund a waterline project, 97 percent of which was not needed, and could have avoided incurring issuance costs of $8,150 and interest costs of $15,077 on this unneeded debt.
• The Town did not need to issue a $200,000 BAN to finance project costs for a town park comfort station and deposited the proceeds into the general fund checking account.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt a bond resolution prior to starting a capital project and prior to issuing BANs.
• Approve the issuance of debt only when it is needed to fund project costs.
• Transfer comfort station BAN proceeds improperly deposited in the general fund to the debt service fund and use it to pay off the BAN.