Text · page 10 of 13
Appendix B: Audit Methodology and Standards We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the State Comptroller’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law. We obtained an understanding of internal controls that we deemed significant within the context of the audit objective and assessed those controls. Information related to the scope of our work on internal controls, as well as the work performed in our audit procedures to achieve the audit objective and obtain valid audit evidence, included the following: l We reviewed written policies, procedures and Board meeting minutes and interviewed District officials to gain an understanding of the controls in place over the procurement process and to determine whether the procurement policy met the requirements outlined in GML Section 104-b. l We obtained a listing of all disbursements from July 1, 2021 through April 14, 2023 to determine a population of goods and services subject to competition. We excluded disbursements for items that would generally not be subject to competition, such as payments to other school districts, payroll-related expenditures, health insurance, utilities, debt service payments, association dues and travel reimbursements. We selected our sample for audit testing from the remaining disbursements totaling approximately $10.5 million. l We used our professional judgment to select 17 purchases totaling approximately $4.9 million that were subject to competitive bidding requirements during our audit period. We reviewed these purchases to determine whether the District advertised for competitive bids. We reviewed 48 purchases totaling $443,734 that did not exceed bidding requirements, but exceeded $5,000 each fiscal year, and reviewed to determine whether written quotes or any other competitive method of procurement was used to procure these goods and services. l We used our professional judgment to select 47 professional service contracts totaling $2.1 million, each exceeding $5,000 per fiscal year, to determine whether the District used a competitive method for procurement. We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objective. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objective. Unless otherwise indicated in this report, samples for testing were selected based on professional judgment, as it was not the intent to project the results onto the entire population. Where applicable, information is presented concerning the value and/or size of the relevant population and the sample selected for examination. 8 Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller