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Report Highlights Town of Evans Audit Objective Audit Period Determine whether Town of Evans (Town) officials maintained leave records and paid separation January 1, 2020 – November 29, 2023. We and health insurance opt-out payments (opt-out extended our audit period back to January payments) that were accurate, supported and 1, 2015 to review Board approval of opt-out approved. payments. Background Key Findings The Town, located in Erie County, is The Town’s leave records and separation governed by an elected Town Board payments were generally not accurate, supported (Board) which is composed of a Supervisor and/or approved. Opt-out payments were and four Councilmembers. The Board is generally accurate; however, they were not responsible for the Town’s financial affairs. properly supported or approved. l We reviewed leave records for 27 of the The Supervisor is the Town’s chief financial Town’s 80 employees and determined that officer, personnel director, appointing officer 373.5 of the 6,077 hours of leave time used and budget director and is responsible by these employees was recorded incorrectly for maintaining human resource records, or not at all in the payroll system. financial records and certifying payroll. The Supervisor resigned in February 2023, l Four separation payments totaling $11,282 transferring these responsibilities to the were inaccurate or unsupported. Deputy Supervisor and reducing the Board l The former Town Supervisor (Supervisor) to four members for the rest of 2023. received four unsupported opt-out payments The Senior Personnel Clerk (Personnel totaling $6,000. Officials were unable to Clerk) assists the Supervisor by processing explain why the former Supervisor was payroll and entering leave used into the treated differently than other Board members. computerized payroll system using both These errors and discrepancies occurred and manual and electronic timecards provided were not detected or corrected due to a variety by various department heads. The part- of factors including a decentralized process for time payroll clerk reports directly to the maintaining leave records and a lack of oversight Personnel Clerk and assists the Personnel of leave records, separation payments and opt-out Clerk with manual data entry. payments. Quick Facts Full-time employees 80 Recommendations 2022 Approximate Value of $1.2 million Leave Benefits The audit report includes nine recommendations Total Separation Payments that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s Paid During Audit Period $230,717 employee benefits practices. Town officials agreed with our recommendations and have indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller 1