Mineola, NY- Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos released his audit of the Clinton G. Martin Park District (“CGM”), and found that the Town of North Hempstead (“TONH”) failed to make lease payments totaling $180,000 to CGM from 1991 to 2002. As a result of the audit, the TONH caught up on the past-due amount in 2011. The audit was delayed for 2 years due to a legal dispute with the TONH concerning the County’s authority to audit municipalities such as Towns and Special Districts.
“This audit was conducted at the request of residents who felt their tax dollars were not being used for the intended purpose,” Comptroller Maragos said. “Our audit found one serious omission by the Town in its avoidance of lease payments over 10 years, which the Town acknowledged and corrected. I am pleased that there were no other significant accounting discrepancies.”
Our audit also found the following minor issues:
Errors in the reclassification of park employee salaries were not always identified and corrected in a timely manner.
TONH administrative salaries and other expenses are allocated to CGM based on budget appropriations instead of actual costs.
The Comptroller’s recommendations include that TONH continue to monitor lease payments to ensure payments are made to CGM on a timely basis; that the accounting review of the salary expense reclassifications related to park employees should be improved to ensure that errors are identified prior to processing and corrected in a more timely manner to ensure that the CGM expenses are accurately stated in the proper reporting period; and that the allocation of TONH and park administrative salaries and other expenses should be based on actual costs.
The full version of our report is available on the Comptroller’s website.
Connect with Nassau County Comptroller Maragos Online:
http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/1590/County-Comptrollers-Office