Audit urges more care on fire vouchers

Claim vouchers for the Massapequa Fire District were not reviewed by all members of the board of fire commissioners as required by law, a state comptroller's audit found.

A sampling of 25 claims examined by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office totaling nearly $50,000 were not audited and approved by every member of the Massapequa fire board "to ensure they are accurate, complete, and for legitimate district purchases," according to the report.

Generally, the board chairman or vice chairman alone had approved the vouchers, according to the audit, which was released Tuesday and covered Jan. 1, 2010, to July 31, 2011.

The audit also found that 20 claims in the sampling did not contain accompanying forms, approved purchase orders and/or invoices.

A letter from Michael Hanna, chairman of the Massapequa district's board of fire commissioners, to DiNapoli's office pointed out "that the finding does not relate to the appropriateness of the expenditures. . . . While failure to properly audit can result in an inappropriate expenditure being made; no inappropriate expenditures were identified."

Hanna also said in the March 27 letter that his board would try to have all commissioners review all claim vouchers going forward and that no vouchers would be paid without at least three commissioners reviewing and approving them.

Hanna could not be reached for additional comment Tuesday.

The audit also recommended a procedure to make sure fire officials obtain quotes for purchases that don't require competitive bidding, saying there were no quotes for eight payments totaling about $50,000.

The audit encouraged improvements to remote access of district software and a disaster recovery plan for financial or operational data.

Hanna in his letter said a form would be developed for claim vouchers to prove compliance with the quote requirement.

He said a written information technology policy was in the works to improve remote access, data backup and other technology concerns.