Southtowns Record

Town of West Seneca – Audit Follow-Up (2019M-195-F)

Government
Town of West Seneca
Posted by publisher
Apr 18, 2025
Kind
State audit
Topics
Budget and taxes, Audits and oversight, Roads and traffic, Water, sewer and drainage, Parks and recreation

Publisher's summary

The purpose of our review was to assess the Town of West Seneca’s (Town’s) progress, as of December 2024, in implementing our recommendations in the audit report Town of West Seneca – Capital Project Management (2019M-195), released in March 2020.

Original document

Text · page 5 of 7

The Supervisor and the Board did not ensure the Director maintained complete and accurate
accounting records for capital project activities. For example, the December 2024 monthly report
for a park pavilion capital project included expenditures totaling over $4.4 million. A Board
member stated that the Town demolished and replaced the pavilion in the park and installed an
accessible sidewalk and path in 2021. He did not know why the December 2024 monthly report
showed expenditures that exceeded $4.4 million for this project. The Director determined that over
$4.3 million was accounted for incorrectly in the pavilion capital project instead of the highway
building capital project and the correct cost of the pavilion capital project was approximately
$127,000. However, when we reviewed the December 2023 monthly report, one year earlier, we
identified that the same error was included. Therefore, we question whether the Board reviewed
these reports because if Board members had, they might have identified such a large error.

Neither the Director nor the bookkeeper reconciled the 2024 accounting records with the capital
projects bank statements. The Director and bookkeeper both confirmed that they did not perform
bank reconciliations because they could not record the 2024 beginning balances in the Town’s
financial software until the 2023 records were closed. At the time of our review, the 2023
accounting records were not closed because they were waiting for the certified public accountant
(CPA) to recommend year-end adjustments.

Because bank reconciliations were not up to date, we reviewed the most recent capital projects
bank reconciliation dated December 31, 2023. The combined capital projects trial balance on
December 31, 2023 reported approximately $489,000 in net cash. However, two capital projects
bank statements only showed a total of over $171,000 or $318,000 less than cash reported in the
accounting records. As a result of our inquiry, the Director transferred approximately $318,000
from the operating fund to the capital projects fund on December 18, 2024 to reconcile the cash.
On December 27, 2024, the Supervisor filed and certified the accuracy of the 2023 Annual
Financial Report (AFR) and reported total capital projects cash of approximately $5 million. The
Director did not provide us with documentation or an explanation for the $318,000 difference.
Furthermore, the 2023 trial balance for the capital projects fund showed negative cash balances
indicating that expenditures were incurred for a project without money available to fund project
expenditures.

Due to the deficiencies with the capital projects records, the 2023 AFR was not filed with OSC
until December 27, 2024 or eight months after the filing deadline. Additionally, the 2023 financial
statements and management letter had not been released as of the end of our fieldwork on January
23, 2025, or more than one year after the fiscal year end. A representative from the Town’s CPA
stated that the delay was attributed to obtaining timely information from Town officials and the
deficiencies with the capital projects records. Subsequent to the end of our fieldwork, the Town’s
audited financial statements were released on February 5, 2025.

Additionally, the 2022 AFR reported capital projects expenditures totaling approximately $8.1
million. However, the 2022 capital projects fund combined trial balance reconciliation had a
balance totaling $2.6 million in expenditures. The Director also provided us with the capital
projects cash disbursements report totaling $766,000 for 2022. The Director did not provide us
with an explanation or documentation to account for the $5.5 million difference. The Supervisor
stated that the 2022 expenditures reported in the AFR would likely need to be restated and the
Director provided us with the draft CPA audited financial statement report stating that the capital
projects fund balance would need to be restated by $3.4 million of which $3.1 million was cash.
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