New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the following school district audits have been issued.
Greenville Central School District – Network User Accounts (Greene County)
District officials did not establish adequate policies and procedures for network user accounts to prevent unauthorized use or access. Officials did not develop a comprehensive acceptable use policy, monitor employee computer use, or disable 64 unneeded user accounts, which included generic and former student and employee accounts.
Lansing Central School District – Procurement (Tompkins County)
District officials did not always seek competition to procure goods and services. As a result, they may not have procured them in a manner that is in the best interests of taxpayers. Officials did not seek competition for insurance coverage totaling $232,624, or for four of six professional service providers paid $301,023 during the 14-month audit period. Officials used the same insurance provider for about 20 years and each of the four remaining vendors for at least 10 years without periodically seeking competition. District officials may have saved at least $3,700 on fuel costs by using a state contract.
Onteora Central School District – Procurement and Claims Auditing (Ulster County)
District officials did not always procure goods and services in a cost-effective manner or ensure claims were audited for accuracy and completeness. The district did not have proper documentation to support that a bus purchase totaling $121,928 was competitively bid or obtain minimum required quotes for eight purchases totaling $106,212. The claims auditor did not audit claims for accuracy or completeness. As a result, auditors identified discrepancies with 17 claims totaling $11,173.
Wheelerville Union Free School District – Unused IT Asset Inventory (Fulton County)
District officials did not maintain complete and accurate inventory records to safeguard unused IT assets. As a result, auditors were unable to conduct necessary physical inventories. Officials stored unused IT assets in an unsecured area, an unlocked cabinet in a classroom, and did not track or monitor who accessed the equipment. Obsolete, unused IT equipment that had not been sanitized of data prior to storage was found and auditors were unable to identify 354 unused IT assets (91%) on inventory records. Auditors identified 70 unused IT assets that were at high risk of potential theft and misuse of personal, private or sensitive information, or unauthorized access to the network.
Peekskill City School District – Network User Accounts (Westchester County)
District officials did not adequately manage and monitor network user accounts. In addition to sensitive information technology (IT) control weaknesses auditors communicated confidentially to officials, district officials should have disabled 133 of 821 network user accounts. These accounts consisted of 56 individual and 77 generic unneeded network user accounts, one of which was last logged on in January 2012. District officials should have ensured all users using IT resources received periodic IT awareness training.
South Seneca Central School District – Online Banking (Seneca County)
The board and district officials did not ensure that online banking transactions were appropriate and secure. District officials improperly allowed a third-party administrator to access a district bank account. The board’s online banking policy dated April 24, 2013, had not been updated or reviewed. It did not reflect current online banking practices and it assigns oversight responsibilities to an internal auditor. However, the district does not have an internal auditor and these responsibilities were not assigned to another employee.
Trumansburg Central School District – Procurement (Tompkins County)
District officials did not always ensure that goods and services were procured in the best interest of the taxpayers. The board of education did not implement the district’s external auditor’s recommendation to update its purchasing policy and officials did not comply with the board’s requirement to develop written procurement procedures as required by the purchasing policy. They also did not competitively bid two purchases totaling $95,073 or have support that they obtained quotes for 29 purchases totaling $177,032. The district also failed to use a competitive method to procure professional services and insurance coverage from four vendors totaling $414,838.
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