New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the following school district audits have been issued.

Cato-Meridian Central School District – Salaries, Wages and Leave Benefits (Cayuga County)

District officials accurately paid salaries and wages but did not accurately pay unused leave benefits, and accrued leave records contained errors. As a result: $14.1 million of (97%) salary and wage payments were disbursed without authorization. For four of nine employees that had separation payments, unused leave was incorrectly calculated — resulting in over/underpayments of $7,430. Two administrators received leave valued at $18,042 without board approval. Fifteen employees (47%) had leave accrual errors totaling $13,529.

Ellenville Central School District – Network User Accounts (Ulster County) 

District officials did not ensure network user accounts were adequately managed. Auditors found district officials should have disabled 550 network user accounts that were no longer needed. Of the 550 unneeded accounts, 462 were not used to log into the system in at least six months from the date of the test. District officials should have established written procedures for granting, changing, or disabling network user accounts.

Johnson City Central School District – Special Education Services and Medicaid Reimbursements (Broome County)

Officials, faced with remote and hybrid learning challenges, did not always ensure students received services in accordance with their individualized education programs (IEPs) and did not ensure that all Medicaid-eligible claims were submitted and reimbursed. Of the 2,683 required sessions, therapists documented 605 as scheduled and missed, but did not document another 506 sessions. As a result, 41% of the required services may not have been received. Two of the 15 therapists did not schedule make-up sessions, and some therapists did not always document scheduled sessions, particularly when students were habitually absent. Therapists did not always document complete information for Medicaid-eligible services. As a result, the district did not realize revenue totaling up to $42,330.

Marion Central School District – Procurement (Wayne County) 

Auditors examined purchases totaling $2.1 million and found more than $586,000 was not competitively procured. District officials could not support that they sought competition for purchases totaling $103,687 for goods and public works that were subject to competitive bidding, $104,430 for items below the competitive bidding requirements, but subject to alternative quote thresholds, and $377,979 paid to four professional service providers. The board and officials also did not develop adequate purchasing policies and procedures and, as a result, officials cannot assure taxpayers that purchases were made in the most prudent and economical manner.

Newark Valley Central School District – Procurement (Tioga County)

District officials did not always seek competition for the purchase of goods and services not subject to competitive bidding. As a result, goods and services may not have been procured economically and in the best interest of taxpayers. Auditors reviewed 30 purchases totaling $200,012 and expenditures for five professional service vendors totaling $171,446. They found that officials did not seek competition for 13 purchases of goods and services totaling $44,401 or compare billed prices to the awarded contract prices, and overpaid for cleaning supplies by $1,532. As a result of this audit, officials obtained a credit for this amount from the vendor.

South Mountain Hickory Common School District – Financial Management (Broome County) 

The trustee and treasurer did not demonstrate effective financial management. The trustee and treasurer developed and adopted unrealistic budgets. Had more reasonable budgets been developed, the trustee and treasurer could have used surplus fund balance to reduce the tax levy, rather than increasing the 2021-22 school year levy by approximately 37%, or $53,000. 

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