§ 33 — Accounts of officers to be examined

New York § 33

• Jurisdiction: New York
• Law GMU: General Municipal
• Art. 3: Report of Financial Condition

Text

§ 33. Accounts of officers to be examined. 1. Inspection and\nexamination of certain accounts. The comptroller shall cause the\naccounts of all officers of each such municipal corporation, industrial\ndevelopment agency, district, agency and activity to be inspected and\nexamined by one or more examiners of municipal affairs for such periods\nas the comptroller shall deem necessary. On every such examination\ninquiry shall be made as to the financial condition and resources of the\nmunicipal corporation, industrial development agency, district, agency\nor activity, and into the method and accuracy of its accounts.\n 2. Audits of school districts, boards of cooperative educational\nservices (BOCES) and charter schools. a. Notwithstanding any other\nprovisions of law to the contrary, the inspection and examination of\nschool districts, charter schools and boards of cooperative educational\nservices accounts shall be conducted pursuant to provisions of this\nsubdivision. Within such funds as are made available for such purpose,\nthe comptroller shall cause the accounts of every school district, BOCES\nand charter school in the state to be examined pursuant to a plan\ndeveloped by the comptroller. Such audits shall be conducted in a manner\nso as to provide, that every school district, BOCES and charter school\nshall be audited at least once by March thirty-first, two thousand ten.\nThe priority and frequency of such audits, and any audits conducted\nthereafter, shall be based upon a risk assessment process conducted by\nthe comptroller which may include investigations of alleged\nimproprieties, previous audit findings and recommendations, or other\nfinancial performance indicators. The comptroller shall provide affected\nschool districts, BOCES and charter schools reasonable prior notice\nbefore the commencement of any audit.\n b. In undertaking such audits the comptroller's review shall include,\nbut not be limited to:\n (1) examining, auditing and evaluating financial documents and records\nof school districts, BOCES and charter schools,\n (2) assessing the current financial practices of school districts,\nBOCES and charter schools to ensure that they are consistent with\nestablished standards, including whether any school district that uses a\nrisk-based or sampling methodology to determine which claims are to be\naudited in lieu of auditing all claims has adopted a methodology that\nprovides reasonable assurance that all the claims represented in the\nsample are proper charges against the school district; and\n (3) determining that school districts, BOCES, and charter schools\nprovide for adequate protections against any fraud, theft, or\nprofessional misconduct.\n c. All audits shall include any appropriate findings and\nrecommendations of the auditors, regarding the fiscal practices that the\nauditors believe to be in violation of, any state or federal law, rule\nor regulation, or demonstrate negligence or incompetence.\n d. The office of the state comptroller shall upon making a finding of\nmisconduct refer any findings of fraud, abuse or other conduct\nconstituting a crime that are uncovered during the course of an audit,\nas appropriate, to the commissioner of education, the charter entity,\nthe attorney general, United States attorney or district attorney having\njurisdiction for appropriate action, together with any documents\nsupporting the auditors' findings.\n e. The final audit report resulting from audits performed pursuant to\nthis section shall be made available to the public by school districts,\nBOCES or charter schools upon request for a period of at least five\nyears. Furthermore, the school district, BOCES, or charter school shall\nbe required to post the final audit report on their internet website, if\navailable, or otherwise make available, for a period of five years.\n f. Upon the request of the comptroller, any state agency, board of\ncooperative educational services, school district or charter school,\nshall cooperate with and make its staff, facilities, and resources\navailable to the comptroller for the purpose of assisting the\ncomptroller in carrying out all actions taken pursuant to this section,\nand shall provide the comptroller upon request, with all data and\nrecords in its possession that relate to audits undertaken pursuant to\nthis section.\n g. The comptroller shall inform and advise the governor and the\nlegislature in December of each year regarding a review of all school\ndistricts, BOCES, and charter schools audits conducted during the\npreceding twelve months and any other pertinent information the\ncomptroller deems appropriate.\n 3. Examinations and report. In addition to the inspection and\nexamination of certain accounts pursuant to this section, the\ncomptroller by the end of the two thousand eleven--two thousand twelve\nschool year, shall also examine for the most recent school year as\npracticable, the employee benefit accrued liability reserve funds of\nschool districts established pursuant to section six-p of this chapter.\nSuch examination shall be for the purpose of determining the amount of\nfunding in the reserve fund, the amount of liabilities against such fund\nand if there exist funds in the reserve fund which are in excess of the\ntotal liabilities of such fund. The comptroller shall notify the school\ndistrict if such excess funds exist and the dollar value of the excess\nfunding. The comptroller shall also prepare a report on the school\ndistricts with excess funds in their employee benefit accrued liability\nreserve fund and the amount of the excess funding for each district.\nSuch report shall be submitted by July first, two thousand twelve to the\ndirector of the budget, the chair of the senate finance committee, the\nchair of the assembly ways and means committee and the commissioner of\neducation.\n