South Huntington school district flagged for credit card spending, including $5G for meals
The New York State Comptroller's Office flagged the South Huntington school district for credit card spending in a recent audit. Credit: Newsday / James Carbone
The South Huntington school district failed to properly oversee credit card spending, including on more than $5,000 in meals and about $1,000 on staff birthday gifts, according to a recent state audit.
The audit, conducted by the Office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, cited charges that auditors said lacked proper approval, documentation or compliance with board purchasing policy and made several recommendations.
The audit covered the period of July 2022 through October 2023, according to the report. It also went as far back as August 2019 and stretched into November 2023 to review "distribution of credit cards," the report says.
Superintendent Vito M. D'Elia told Newsday the district has implemented changes since the audit and taken steps to reduce inefficiencies.
“Most importantly, no fraud was found here. There's ways we can do things better, and they’ve identified some of those ways and practices, and we absolutely acted on it right away,” D’Elia explained.
He added, "When there's room for improvement, we're going to do that."
Meal purchases flagged
During the audit period, credit card spending in South Huntington totaled $196,039, with the bulk — $165,293 — used on fuel and the rest used to make general purchases. Two general cards were issued to the superintendent and 32 fuel cards were provided to six district departments, according to the audit.
Auditors found 110 purchases totaling $7,040 lacked documentation showing they were for a “necessary district purpose.” This included 62 meal purchases adding up to $5,518, and $1,522 for "three recurring computer software subscriptions." According to the district’s refreshment and meal policy, related expenses may be approved when “meetings of employees are essential at mealtime,” or officers or employees cannot take time off to eat because of business matters. Auditors determined that records did not support that these food expenses followed that policy.
Ten of the meal purchases, costing $594, were made at local restaurants by the board president, who told auditors they were for meetings attending to district purposes. Fifty food purchases amounting to $4,739 were made by the superintendent, who said they occurred during meetings with district employees and board members. He later “acknowledged that the district did not need to incur the costs for these meetings." He also raised questions about why the auditor did not notify him this was “inappropriate.”
The two remaining meals, totaling $185, were charged on the superintendent’s card by the board president and assistant superintendent of elementary education during meetings, according to the audit.
Auditors also found that 36 credit card purchases in the amount of $5,378 were not for “district operations," but were instead spent on "extra-classroom activity, clubs, gifts and event tickets." Of that total, $3,465, was for supplies for the district's extracurricular clubs and school store, the audit said.
According to the report, the clubs provided reimbursements but, in many cases, only after the auditors flagged the spending. The superintendent made four purchases of $1,138 for cookies for staff birthdays. Four purchases totaling $520 covered events, including one where district music students were performing and being recognized, and another held by the PTA, the audit said.
Auditors also found fuel logs were not maintained properly and no distribution lists were kept for fuel cards.
Board president Nicholas Ciappetta sent a letter to the comptroller’s office board in August noting the district had initiated changes, including strengthening oversight. He also disagreed with some of the findings, including that several expenses lacked "a legitimate school purpose, including purchases related to attendance at school-related functions and meals."
He noted the district has since “revised its practice,” and the general credit card is no longer used to purchase tickets for school-related functions. He also said the meals flagged in the audit “involved school business that was essential and time-sensitive.” In many cases, he wrote, the meetings had to be held after work hours “to accommodate the availability of board members, district officials, employees, or volunteers," and were "consistent with board policy."
Auditors made 16 recommendations, including that “itemized receipts and supporting documentation are attached to all credit card claims before payment, as required."
The report also noted that to “ensure that credit cards are used only for approved and necessary expenditures and to protect against the misuse of taxpayer funds, the board of education and school district officials should develop and adopt a credit card policy and system of appropriately designed internal controls for credit card purchases.”
Lorena Mongelli has been reporting for Newsday since 2021. Prior to that, she covered breaking news at the New York Post.
