Publisher's summary
The Board and Village officials did not establish adequate internal controls over Department cash receipts. The Board did not adopt written cash receipt policies, cash receipt duties were not properly segregated and the Supervisor did not adequately oversee the cash receipt function. As a result, the attendant had almost complete control over the cash receipts without adequate oversight. From August 1, 2011 through November 30, 2017, we reviewed approximately 2,000 receipts issued by Department employees for cash collections totaling approximately $264,000. We estimate that additional unreceipted cash of $14,000 was collected for swim gate fees during this period. However, the attendant reported cash collections of approximately $107,700, a cash shortage of more than $170,000. During this period, less than half the amount of cash receipted by employees was remitted to the Treasurer. OSC's Division of Investigations in conjunction with the Erie County District Attorney's Office jointly investigated this matter. In October 2018, the attendant admitted stealing more than $150,000 from the Village and altering public records from 2011 through 2017. She pleaded guilty to grand larceny, false filing and official misconduct in October 2018 and was sentenced in March 2019. As part of her sentence, she repaid the Village $156,374.
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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:
ll We interviewed Village officials and employees to gain an understanding
of the processes and procedures in place for accepting, recording and
accounting for Department cash collected and receipted and remitted to the
Treasurer’s office.
ll We performed a Department cash count to document all cash on hand on
September 11, 2017.
ll We requested all available Department receipts from June 1, 2010 through
November 30, 2017. We identified and documented any missing receipts.
ll We documented cash collections from June 1, 2010 through November
30, 2017 according to Department receipts. We documented the program
or activity listed on the receipt, the individual who accepted payment and
whether payment was made by cash or check.
ll We requested the Treasurer’s receipts from June 1, 2010 through November
30, 2017 to determine whether they were accounted for in sequence.
ll We documented revenue remitted to the Treasurer from June 1, 2010
through November 30, 2017 according to the attendant’s cash reports and
the Treasurer’s receipts. We identified how much was remitted in cash and
checks. We also identified which account code was credited according to the
reports.
ll We determined whether all money remitted by the Department to the
Treasurer from June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017 was properly deposited.
ll For the period June 1, 2010 through November 30, 2017, we compared the
amount collected according to Department receipts to the amount remitted
to the Treasurer based on the date the receipt was written and the date the
money was remitted to the Treasurer. We documented any discrepancies
between collections and the amount remitted.
ll For the period June 1, 2010 through November 30, 2017, we identified any
money remitted to the Treasurer when a Department receipt was not written
and adjusted our analysis accordingly. When periods included large gaps of
missing receipts we eliminated them from our testing.
ll We requested accounting records; swim center daily reports, sign-in sheets
and spreadsheets; after school program registration forms; and flag football
registration forms for 2010-11 through 2016-17.
ll We performed reliability testing to provide reasonable assurance that the
payment method as marked on Department receipts could be relied upon.
10 Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller