Report rebukes Babylon fiscal practices

Loans for a money-losing municipal golf course that weren't repaid on time. An accounting statement filed 287 days late. A village board that didn't follow its own competitive bidding policy.

Those were some of the findings in a state comptroller's report released Wednesday that criticized the village of Babylon's fiscal practices for the period of June 2008 to December 2009.

Facing operating losses on the village's nine-hole golf course, village officials borrowed up to $404,723 over several years from the general fund that could not be immediately repaid, the report found. While such interfund loans are permissible, they must be repaid within the same fiscal year. The audit found they were not. The audit also found a firm the village hired to prepare annual accounting statements filed them late in 2007, 2008 and 2009, culminating in a 2009 statement filed 287 days late.

Failure to forecast and request reimbursement for grant funding also led the village to use short-term borrowing to cover cash-flow needs, resulting in unnecessary interest expense, the audit found. The board also violated its own bidding policy, sometimes failing to solicit competitive bids on sizable purchases.

Mayor Ralph Scordino said the board "learned from our mistakes" and corrected them.

The village took 14 steps in response to the audit, the report notes, including rebuilding the general fund, more timely monitoring of cash flow, and repaying the golf course's debt to the general fund.

Scordino defended the board's purchases of items outside the bidding process including asphalt and a street sweeper that totaled more than $500,000. "I can guarantee the residents got the lowest price on all those things," he said.