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Transparency of Fiscal Activities: Findings and Recommendations Towns are governed by an elected town board, composed of a fixed number of elected board members and a town supervisor. A town board is generally responsible for overseeing a town’s financial operations and the safeguarding of town resources. With certain exceptions,2 a town board is required by Town Law to annually audit the town supervisor’s books and records. Pursuant to GML, the town supervisor is responsible for preparing and filing with OSC, as well as making available to the public, an annual report of the town’s financial position, known as the AFR. Furthermore, pursuant to GML and Town Law, towns are required to notify and make financial information available to the public by posting the AFR on the town’s website, and through notice in the local newspaper of available financial information. More details on the criteria used in this report as well as additional resources including a checklist and OSC guidance on conducting an annual audit excerpted from our Local Government Management Guide (LGMG) publication Fiscal Oversight Responsibilities of the Governing Board, are included in Appendix A. Finding 1 – The Board did not perform an annual audit of the Supervisor’s records and reports in accordance with Town Law. The Board did not conduct an audit of the Supervisor’s Figure 2: LGMG – Fiscal Oversight financial records and reports for fiscal year 2024. The Figure 2: LGMG –ofFiscal Responsibilities Oversight the Governing Responsibilities Boarda of the Governing Supervisor and two Board members told us that they were Boarda not aware of the annual audit requirement. They also told us they believed that the Board’s monthly audit of claims and its monthly review of the Supervisor’s manual cash receipt and disbursement report provided adequate oversight of the Town’s financial operations. However, conducting annual audits allows the Board to assess the effectiveness of financial operations and help ensure that it is maintaining adequate oversight over Town operations. We reviewed the Supervisor’s fiscal year 2024 records and reports using the same guidance OSC developed to help local officials fulfill their audit responsibilities pursuant to Town Law. This guidance is published in our LGMG – Fiscal Oversight Responsibilities of the Governing Board (Figure 2) and is readily available on our website. a) https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/local-government/ publications/pdf/fiscal-oversight-responsibilities- of-the-governing-board.pdf 2 The provisions of Town Law requiring the annual accounting with and submission of books and records to, the town board does not apply to towns that, prior to January 20th, have engaged the services of a certified public accountant or public accountant to make an annual audit to be completed within 60 days after the close of the town’s fiscal year. Also, in the case of a town having a comptroller, the accounting by the officers and employees who received or disbursed any funds in the previous fiscal year would be with the town comptroller, who would also be responsible for examining the accounts of those officers and employees. Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller 3