NYS Audit Report On New Lebanon

by Thaddeus Flint
The New York State Comptroller’s Office has released an audit report on the Town of New Lebanon in which they outline several areas of financial activities which the Town needs to work to further control.
According to the Office of the State Comptroller, one of their top priorities is “to help local government officials manage government resources efficiently and effectively and, by so doing, provide accountability for tax dollars spent to support government operations.” In order to do so they regularly perform audits of towns and municipalities to make sure proper internal controls exist that can be used to determine accountability of funds spent. Looking through a sample of audits done by the Comptroller’s office in the last year, it is seemingly impossible to find a report on a town that lists no negative findings at all. As towns grow larger and become more computerized, the controls needed over information and funds becomes more complex. The fact that New Lebanon, too, has some areas which need addressing should probably not then come as a great shock to its residents.
The audit of New Lebanon was done covering financial activities from the period of January 1, 2008, to July 1, 2009. The Comptroller’s Office was primarily looking to determine if internal controls over wire transfers, purchasing and information technology were appropriately designed to adequately safeguard Town assets.
Their audit found the following problem areas:
“Internal controls over wire transfers were not appropriately designed and operating effectively to safeguard Town assets.” The Town needs to be vigilant in making sure they know exactly who orders online transfers of funds and what the purpose of those transfers was for.
“Internal controls over purchasing were not adequate.” The report cited that $84,570 was spent on highway materials which the Comptroller’s Office felt was not properly solicited or put out to bid. A further $36,356 for rental of equipment was spent “without using requests for proposals or soliciting written quotes, as required.”
“Internal controls over IT (Information Technology) are not appropriately designed.” The Town needs to make sure a better system is put into place to safeguard and backup sensitive data. In the event of some disaster, with the system in place at that time, there could be loss of financial records and court records which could seriously affect Town operations.
The report was forwarded to the Town with recommendations made as to how these problem areas could be remedied. Town Supervisor Margaret Robertson has responded, saying that some of the recommendations had already been put into place and “a corrective action plan will be developed by the Town Board including adoption of written policies and procedures to address those areas still needing our attention.”