Audit faults fire district's record-keeping

A state audit of the Farmingville fire district has found sloppy record-keeping and failure to put contracts out for bid, including the purchase of a $49,500 racing truck.

Stephen Curtin, chairman of the fire district board, said past mistakes were being addressed. "We have already taken corrective actions that address the comptroller's findings," he said in a statement Friday, after the audit was released.

The comptroller's audit covered Jan. 1, 2010, to Jan. 31, 2011, and included the 2004 purchase of the racing truck, which had not been delivered when the audit began.

The audit found that the Farmingville board of commissioners did not solicit competitive bids for three purchases totaling $49,297, or quotes for two purchases totaling $10,191. The district's budget for the audit year was $3 million.

The audit also cited six "questionable" credit card purchases for $2,066 in meals and clothes, and the failure to put out a bid for the racing truck, which has since been delivered and is used in training exercises.

Curtin said in his statement that he has been fighting the "inefficacies, mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibilities . . . for years. Fortunately, we now have fire commissioners on the board who are cost-conscious and want to run an efficient organization."

The district responded to the audit with detailed plans to correct the deficiencies, but challenged the severity of some of the audit's findings.

In a letter sent to the comptroller on Dec. 22, then board chairman Robert Wallace wrote that "the district takes the recommendations very seriously."

The district has in place a fuel inventory policy, Wallace said, but would make it "more encompassing" since the audit criticized its record-keeping. The state auditors reviewed 11 months of fuel transactions and found that each month they could not account for an average of about 300 gallons of gas, worth about $7,700 total.

The audit criticized officials for a number of purchases that were not put out to bid, including a $20,485 radio console system.

Wallace said the radio console system was an emergency purchase from a state-approved vendor for "radio communications to receive and dispatch emergency service calls." He pledged the district would be more careful about soliciting and documenting competitive bids.

The $2,066 in "questionable charges" on the district's credit cards was not a widespread problem, Wallace said, describing the amount as "minimal" and pledging better enforcement of district policies.

Farmingville also hasn't drafted a disaster recovery plan, the audit found. "The district has only a limited plan to identify and evaluate existing risks and take action in the event of a disaster."

Wallace said the district would adopt such a plan as soon as possible.