New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced on March 9 that his office has issued several audits of local governments and schools.
The audits highlight issues in financial management, information technology controls, and reporting practices across various districts and towns. These findings are important because they address how public funds are managed and whether proper safeguards are in place to protect sensitive information.
One audit found that a school district did not properly manage its fund balance for the 2021-22 through 2023-24 fiscal years. The district’s reported surplus fund balance ranged from about 7 to 15 percent of the upcoming year’s budget, which was $3.5 million to $11.1 million over the statutory limit of four percent. The district only complied with the statutory limit for the 2024-25 fiscal year after making an unbudgeted $15 million transfer to its capital projects fund. Additionally, auditors noted that the board had adopted budgets that overestimated appropriations by an average of $9.4 million per year during those years, mainly in instruction, health insurance benefits, and special education services.
Another audit revealed weaknesses in managing nonstudent network user accounts within a district’s IT system. As of November 15, 2024, there were 488 enabled nonstudent network user accounts that were not needed and should have been disabled. Of these, 433 accounts had never been used or had not been accessed for more than six months—some for at least five years—posing potential security risks if accessed by unauthorized individuals. During the audit process, IT officials began corrective actions to disable unnecessary accounts.
In another case, town officials failed to adequately manage network and local user accounts or develop a written IT contingency plan. They also did not provide IT security awareness training to staff despite paying nearly $14,800 to a vendor for IT-related services without a formal contract or service agreement outlining the scope of work.
A separate audit determined that a treasurer did not always provide complete or accurate financial reports to their board. This resulted in insufficient information for proper oversight of financial operations; errors were found in manually prepared reports with discrepancies ranging from $12 to $4,701 between book balances and accounting records.
These findings underscore ongoing challenges faced by local governments and school districts in New York regarding fiscal responsibility and data security.