For immediate release from the
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Schools

November 13, 2007

Results of state audit announced

State Comptroller's office gives BH-BL top marks

BURNT HILLS:  After weeks of analysis, the NY State Comptroller’s office has announced that its auditors were unable to find any reportable weaknesses in the financial controls and recordkeeping of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district.

      State auditors looked at records for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years and would have gone back further had they found any concerns, says BH-BL Assistant Superintendent Jacqueline St. Onge.

      At an audit committee meeting with BH-BL Board of Education members, state associate examiner Scott Messineo stated that fewer than 5 percent of the school districts audited to date by the comptroller’s office have received a report with no findings.

      Following the 2004 discovery of massive fraud in a Long Island school district, the comptroller initiated a five point plan that included new fraud prevention and accountability rules for schools. Additionally, a 2005 law requires that all public school districts, BOCES and charter schools be audited by the comptroller’s office within five years.

Two phase process

      State auditors start each school analysis with an in-depth review of many areas. “They look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in your financial controls especially in areas where other districts have been found to have problems,” says school business administrator Dina Edgar.  This review covers such areas as payroll, inventory records, purchasing, banking and investments, cash receipts, cell phone billing, credit card activity, network security, conference and travel expenses, and reimbursements to individuals.

      Phase two in the state audit is a detailed examination of weak areas. “Mr. Messineo said his team didn’t identify any areas at Burnt Hills that would require further auditing, but his team is required to audit something and prepare a report on every district regardless,” explains Edgar.

      Since payroll is a high-risk area for any employer, the auditors chose to focus on this. Their “Internal Controls Over Payroll Processing” inspection failed to uncover any reportable problems.  

      The auditors did recommend that BH-BL could reduce the potential risk of fraud by hiring a second payroll clerk, but St. Onge did not feel it was necessary to incur this additional expense. Instead procedures were changed so that payroll changes cannot take effect without being reviewed by other existing staff members.

“This is the best ‘attaboy’ a business office can get”

      Getting the prized “clean audit” report from the state is a huge relief and thrill for BH-BL business office staff. Even though Burnt Hills has a track record of nothing but clean audits for every year since 1987 from external auditing company Dorfman-Robbie, P.C., the state comptroller’s team has been citing district after district across the state for various problems. 

      “We’ve been tightening up our procedures, making sure everything is in writing, and learning from the experience of other districts for the past two years, “ notes Edgar. “The pressure was intense, but this is the best ‘attaboy’ a business office can get.”

     The complete report is available on the comptroller’s website at: http://osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/2007/schools/index.htm (Please note that the key paragraphs on "Audit Results" or "Corrective Actions" are missing from the BH-BL audit simply because there were no findings to report. Clicking on the reports for several other school districts for comparison will clarify this.)

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