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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. To achieve the audit objective and obtain valid audit evidence, our audit procedures included the following: l We interviewed District officials, including Board members, claims auditors and other employees, and reviewed policies, regulations, procedures and Board meeting minutes to gain an understanding of the District’s process to prepare, approve, audit and pay claims. l From a population of 1,661 claims, we used our professional judgment to select a sample of 75 claims totaling $1,804,573. We selected our sample to include claims reviewed by both claims auditors during our audit period and to include claims for a variety of vendors, claims for District officials and individuals, and claims for unusual or unique vendors. l We reviewed these claims to determine whether the claims were: for an appropriate District purpose, adequately supported, properly authorized and approved, contained evidence that the goods or services were actually received, in compliance with Board-adopted policies and audited and approved before payment. 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. The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of General Municipal Law, Section 2116-a (3)(c) of New York State Education Law and Section 170.12 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. To the extent practicable, implementation of the CAP must begin by the end of the next fiscal year. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. The CAP should be posted on the District’s website for public review. Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller 9