Southtowns Record

Village of Hamburg - Recreation Department Cash Receipts - Cash Shortage (2018M-104)

Government
Village of Hamburg
Posted by publisher
May 10, 2019
Kind
State audit
Topics
Audits and oversight, Parks and recreation, Budget and taxes

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.

Original document

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We did this by examining bank compositions for three Department bank
  deposits totaling $56,300 made on April 28, 2017, May 12, 2017 and May
  30, 2017. We judgmentally selected these dates because they consisted of
  some of the larger deposits made by the Department during the 2016-17
  fiscal year. We matched checks on the bank composition to Department
  receipts based on the last name and other notations on check. Testing
  indicated that collections paid by check were generally properly remitted
  to the Treasurer. As a result, we concentrated our audit procedures on
  collections that were paid by cash.

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.

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 relevant population size and the sample selected for examination.

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-Treasurer’s14 office.

14 The Treasurer’s official title is Village Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer

  Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller  11