Miller Place Fire District audit finds $40G in improperly documented credit card purchases

Miller Place Fire District officials provided insufficient documentation for more than $40,000 worth of credit card charges over a two-year period, state auditors said in a recent report.

The report, released Monday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said auditors found 86 charges totaling $40,198 in which fire commissioners and district staff failed to describe the reasons for the purchases, the quantity of items they bought or the dollar amounts of the purchases.

The board of fire commissioners approved some purchases without supporting documentation, auditors said, adding they found some cases in which individual commissioners approved their own purchases. 

Auditors did not accuse fire district officials of wrongdoing but warned that failures to document spending "increased [the] risk that the district will expend funds for unauthorized or inappropriate purchases."

The audit recommended the district, which has an annual budget of $2.6 million, revise spending policy to ensure purchases include itemized documentation and are approved by fire commissioners.

Miller Place officials did not dispute the findings contained in the six-page report.

In a two-page letter included in the report, Carol Hawat, chairperson of the board of fire commissioners, said the board on Jan. 10 approved policy changes that incorporated the comptroller's recommendations.

She blamed some of the problems cited by auditors on unnamed vendors that she said had provided incomplete documentation to the district.

Attempts to reach Hawat and Miller Place fire officials were unsuccessful.

The comptroller's report was part of DiNapoli's yearslong campaign to audit local governments and special districts throughout the state.

State auditors examined Miller Place's finances from January 2022 to November 2023.

The report said the district had issued a total of 19 credit cards to 10 people, including all five fire commissioners, three chiefs, the district manager and a fire department employee. Credit card limits ranged from $5,000 to $20,000, the report said, adding some recipients held multiple cards.

Auditors said some of those limits were too high, adding only the district manager should have the maximum limit for purchases such as hotel reservations for conferences.

Auditors also cited 10 credit card purchases totaling $14,544 that "were audited and approved for payment by the commissioner who made the purchase," adding that such purchases should be "subject to an independent audit prior to payment."

In one example cited in the report, an unidentified commissioner charged $1,079 for hotel, car rental and other travel-related expenses to attend a conference in Florida. Auditors said three commissioners, including the one who made the purchase, audited and approved the charge.

Hawat said in her letter to the comptroller's office that the district's new policy requires that commissioners or staff making purchases "cannot be the same person who approved the purchase order."