New York school districts in the last five years improperly retained $615 million in taxpayer dollars in reserve accounts, and have $880 million in excess funds unnecessarily held in those accounts, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday.
The findings are the results of 733 audits of New York’s public schools and boards of cooperative educational services from August 2005 through February of this year.
“Taxpayers have the right to know if the school districts are managing their money the right way, and we found a majority are trying to do this,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Our audits have increased transparency by giving taxpayers an objective look into school district finances. We’re holding school officials accountable. And we’ve protected taxpayer money.”
Some 285 districts and boards of cooperative educational services statewide improperly retained $615 million in reserves, the majority of which was held in employee benefit accrued liability reserves, DiNapoli said. The total exceeds reasonable estimates of the school district’s liabilities for the reserve funds.
The audits, DiNapoli said, also identified:
- $140 million in missed Medicaid reimbursements,
- $25 million in improper contract payments,
- $24 million in cost savings and revenue enhancements that districts could not implement,
- nearly $18 million in fraud at 19 districts,
- $7.7 million in inappropriate separation payments and other payments to school administrators and other employees, and
- $49.4 million in contracts that did not benefit from competition.
“That’s money that could have been used to lower property taxes,” he said.
(c) 2010 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or e-mail service@rbj.net.
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