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Officials Did Not Establish Sound Procedures for Park Receipts The Board and officials did not develop written policies or procedures for how entrance and rental fees should be recorded, deposited and reconciled or provide guidance for Park employees issuing complimentary or discounted tags. Although officials have a basic employee handbook for Park employees, the handbook does not explain how entrance fees are to be recorded and reported or make any reference to rental fees. In addition, while department staff told us that there is a discussion at employee meetings at the beginning of each season on how entrance fees are to be handled and recorded, officials do not provide any formal training on how to accurately complete the daily tally and gate summary sheets. While daily tally sheets, gate summary sheets and deposit slips are provided to the recreation attendant to record entrance fee collections in the financial system, no one independent of the receipts process compared deposits to recorded amounts or confirmed the number of complimentary or discounted tags issued. The Board has not adopted a fee schedule for rental fees. During fieldwork, the recreation attendant provided us with several different fee schedules, which showed different fees for the same rental services, and in some cases, did not include a fee for certain rental services, such as beach ceremonies or picnic area rentals. The recreation attendant told us that she believed different rental agents used different fee schedules and she was not sure which schedule the current rental agent was using. Further, the rental agent did not provide rental contracts to the recreation attendant to record in the financial system. Rather, patrons verbally indicated to the recreation attendant the services included in the contract when they made the first payment. The recreation attendant used that information to enter rental fees into the financial system. While the rental agent is responsible for following up with patrons to ensure that any balances due are paid before the date of rental, no invoices are sent to patrons. Instead, the rental agent phones patrons to remind them of amounts due, based on a report provided by the recreation attendant. Due to these control weaknesses, officials cannot be certain that all receipts are properly collected, deposited and recorded. Vehicle Entrance Fees Were Not Properly Recorded We found that daily tally sheets were not accurately completed. Officials told us that starting and ending tag numbers should be recorded on the daily tally sheets, with the gate summary sheet attached showing the tag numbers that were discounted or issued as complimentary tags. Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller 3