Southtowns Record

Village of Gowanda - Sewer Financial Operations (2019M-199)

Government
Village of Gowanda
Posted by publisher
Dec 20, 2019
Kind
State audit
Topics
Water, sewer and drainage, Audits and oversight, Budget and taxes

Publisher's summary

Because the Board did not adopt realistic budgets, the sewer fund incurred operating deficits and a decline in its overall financial health. The Board overestimated revenues by $379,000 in fiscal years 2014-15 through 2018-19, resulting in net operating deficits in the sewer fund totaling $144,000. The Board also did not annually review contractual revenues, resulting in potential unrealized revenue totaling approximately $295,000. Finally, the Board did not document a basis for, or adequately monitor, shared service costs, resulting in possible sewer fund inequities. However, with rate increases in effect and the adoption of more realistic revenue estimates in 2018-19 and 2019-20, there has been marked improvement.

Original document

Text · page 12 of 14

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department personnel. We compared recorded hours against payroll
  registers and the accounting records to determine whether amounts charged
  to the Sewer Department were supported.
  ll We reviewed accounting records and Board minutes to determine whether
  payments made from reserve funds were authorized and for appropriate
  purposes.

We conducted this performance audit in accordance with GAGAS (generally
accepted government auditing standards). 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.

A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and
recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to our office
within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of General Municipal Law. 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. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review in
the Village Clerk’s office.

10  Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller