ALBION — A recent audit of the Town of Albion, in Oswego County, by the Office of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that the town supervisor did not follow basic accounting practices by maintaining complete and accurate accounting records and financial reports.

As a result, the supervisor provided financial records and reports to the board that contained “significant errors, and the board lacked reliable information to manage the town’s financial operations,” according to a Nov. 8 summary of the comptroller’s audit report. The audit period was Jan.1, 2023 to June 14, 2024.

State auditors determined that the Albion supervisor did not maintain a general ledger, subsidiary revenue and expenditure ledgers, or cash receipts and disbursements journals to properly track financial activity.

The supervisor’s 2023 revenue and expenditure budget-to-actual reports were not accurate. For example, the reports failed to include $551,134 of real property tax revenue and a $109,000 expenditure for a storage building, per DiNapoli’s report. In addition, budgetary transfers totaling $27,125 were improperly reported as actual expenditures.

The supervisor also did not account for payroll-related liabilities, maintain proper cash-control accounts, and reconcile the town’s bank accounts, the comptroller’s office stipulates. Lastly, the board did not conduct a thorough annual audit of the supervisor’s 2023 accounting records, as required by state law.

The audit report includes 10 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Albion supervisor’s records and reports and the board’s oversight of financial operations. Those recommendations included having the supervisor attend accounting training, through the state comptroller’s office. “Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action,” DiNapoli’s audit report stated.

Michael Faulkner, supervisor of the Town of Albion, wrote the following in response to the comptroller’s audit findings. “It has been and continues to be my goal to be very open and transparent with all the town’s finances. Thanks to the on-site auditor’s help, I have already implemented many of the recommendations from the audit and have a timely plan to institute the rest,” he said. “I am somewhat disappointed by the fact that it is NOT mentioned more strongly that there is no indication of misappropriation or wrongdoing.”

The town of Albion is located in the northern half of Oswego County and is governed by an elected board composed of the supervisor and four board members. The board is responsible for the general oversight of the town’s operations and finances. The supervisor, as chief fiscal officer, is responsible for receiving, disbursing, and retaining custody of town money, maintaining accounting records, and providing financial reports to the board.