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Appendix C: 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 reviewed Board minutes, written policies and applicable State and local legislation to gain an understanding of the audit scope. ll We interviewed the Assessor and discussed the real property tax exemption process and recordkeeping requirements. ll We reviewed the 2017 Town tax roll to determine the total number of agricultural, veteran, disability and senior citizen exemptions and the corresponding assessed and exemption values. From this population, we judgmentally selected 60 exemptions for audit testing. We selected exemptions with higher values and parcels with multiple exemptions as these have a greater financial tax impact. We reviewed all documentation available to support the exemptions in our sample such as application forms, soil survey identification forms, income records and proof of military service, discharge and disability. ll We reviewed any available documentation relating to the exemptions and recalculated the exemption amounts to verify that the property owners received the appropriate exemption amount. 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 size of the relevant population 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 Town Clerk’s office. 8 Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller