The Town of Otselic is under scrutiny of the New York State Comptroller’s Office for not implementing recommendations made when the town was audited back in 2021. (Photo from Town of Otselic website)

OTSELIC – The New York State Comptroller’s Office is calling on Town of Otselic elected officials to enact changes to their bookkeeping practices that were initially recommended when the town was audited back in 2021.

A review of the initial audit  shows that the Otselic town supervisor and board members have fully met just one of the 11 audit recommendations made by the state comptroller and only partially met another, according to the report. Nine recommendations were not implemented, among them an appeal for the town supervisor to offer accurate monthly financial reports to the town board.

The town board’s response to the original 2021 audit  stated that “Wherever possible, corrective actions will occur in response to the audit findings.” However, board members had expressed some contempt for the initial report, arguing that the supervisor “had approval of the board on major financial decisions,” and taxable dollars asked of Otselic residents had decreased between 2019 and 2021.

Nevertheless, the State Comptroller’s Office points to inaction of the Otselic Town Board to fully implement recommendations, stating that this “undermines confidence and accountability in the town’s finances and forgoes an opportunity to learn of future risks from our office’s early warning system.”

The report outlines nine recommendations not implemented by Otselic board members. They include:

The board should require the supervisor to provide accurate monthly financial reports.

The board should periodically review the supervisor’s financial records to ensure errors and irregularities do not exist in the accounting records.