Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | St. Lawrence County, NY
BY PAUL MITCHELL North Country This Week CANTON - Mayor Michael Dalton said the village has implemented policies and procedures to correct discrepancies cited in an audit from the New York State …
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BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week
CANTON - Mayor Michael Dalton said the village has implemented policies and procedures to correct discrepancies cited in an audit from the New York State Comptroller’s Office.
Key findings in the audit, dated Nov. 24, 2021, included:
The accounting records were not complete, accurate and reliable, in part because the Board did not develop policies and procedures to ensure the records were properly maintained. For example on May 31, 2020, the Village’s pooled cash accounts were out of balance by $942,592.
Proper bank reconciliations were not performed and total cash in the accounting records was overstated by about $142,500 due to various accounting errors, including errors that were carried forward from 2013.
Annual financial reports were not filed with the Office of the State Comptroller for 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 as required.
The Board was not provided with adequate monthly financial reports and did not annually audit the Clerk-Treasurer's records and reports, as required.
“It’s important to us to take corrective actions in response to the comptroller’s report,” the mayor said. “Now the public can see what we did.”
Dalton said a Buffalo accounting firm who specializes in municipal issues was hired in October to assist the village in initiating these corrective measures, adding that all the missing financial reports have now been filed and the bank reconciliations are current.
“We were pleased to see no instances of fraud or abuse in the report,” he said. “We are on an excellent path right now.”
The village will be conducting an official audit at the end of the budget year that ends May 31. He added that he and Deputy Mayor Carol Pynchon now comprise a finance committee.
There were 13 recommendations addressed in the comptroller's report.
One area of improvement, said Dalton, will be to examine how the village clerk's office is operating and define ways for better efficiency.
“With the cooperation of the village clerk [Sally Noble] we will take a look at how things are done and how to improve things.”
To read the comptroller’s report, go to https://www.osc.state.ny.us/files/local-government/audits/2021/pdf/canton-2021-101.pdf
