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Mostly Cloudy State completes Elmont audit
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced on June 10 that his office completed audits of several school districts statewide, including the Elmont Union Free School District. The audit was initiated by the state nearly one year ago.
Auditors found that Elmont’s Board of Education inappropriately delegated the discretionary functions of approving purchase orders, journal entries and wire transfers to its business consultant, Tom Galante. Thus, Galante was responsible for approving all district purchases, including the purchase of his own services.
Additionally, Galante approved journal entries and wire transfers for the two months reviewed totaling $25.4 million, representing a combined 93 percent of all such activity for those two months.
“(Galante) could possibly approve payments for himself he wasn’t entitled to, and the board is not exercising its proper oversight of district funds,” explained Mark Johnson, a spokesman for DiNapoli.
Al Harper, Elmont’s superintendent, said that the district’s treasurer has always approved business transactions, but those transactions are also reviewed by the district's business consultant — Galante, currently — as an additional control. Because Galante's signature was on transaction documents, the state assumed he had approved them, Harper explained. To comply with the state's audit, the district will now use a specific stamp to indicate that the business consultant has reviewed those transactions, he said.
State auditors also found that the district paid four former employees — Dr. Lynn Stucchio, an administrator, and custodians Nelson Guzman, Joseph Kasper and Thomas Chalmer — $9,820 for unused vacation leave that was not authorized by their employment agreements or board resolutions, and that internal controls over the district’s IT system need to be improved.
Additionally, the state found that district officials generally did not solicit competition when obtaining professional services and continued to use the same professionals year after year.
