State audit of Baldwin Public Library cites ‘concerns’

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office recently scolded the Baldwin Public Library for being lax in its payroll operation, according to a release from that state office.

“During the audit process, we informed Library officials about our concerns regarding segregation of duties in the payroll process,” said the comptroller’s audit report.

The report, though, did say that “The Business Manager and the Director took action to mitigate this weakness, [with] the Accounting Department adding a part-time employee to assist the Business Manager ...[and] the Deputy Director being assigned the responsibility of reviewing the time card records before the business manager submits the payroll for processing.”

Library officials did not respond in time for this story. But the report carried its official response thanking the state office for its findings, which would help the library show an “awareness and understanding of our fiduciary responsibility to Baldwin taxpayers.”

The audit also noted that improvement is needed in the library’s information technology controls but refused to be specific in its report “because of the sensitivity of this information.”