State audit finds fault with meal records at BOCES
HUDSON FALLS — A state audit found an upstate BOCES district over a two-year period didn’t document the need for meals at many of its meetings. On top of that, officials didn’t record who attended at least three dozen meetings where meals were consumed.
Without doing that, the state comptroller’s office said, BOCES officials increased the chance that they may have paid for unnecessary food.
The Washington-saratoga-warren-hamilton-essex Board of Cooperative Educational Services spent nearly $137,000 for meals at meetings from July 2021 through August 2023, according to the March 29 report by the comptroller’s office.
The audit reviewed 80 different meetings during that time, with meals costing a total of $63,009, and determined only one meeting documented the need for meals. Officials also paid nearly $7,000 more than the federal per diem rate at 34 of the reviewed meetings, the report said.
The comptroller’s office urged the BOCES to clearly document meals, including when they are needed, and stay within federal per diem rates. The audit found nearly half the meetings reviewed didn’t include who attended, and over a third did not document prior approval from the district superintendent, which goes against BOCES policy. A portion of meals also weren’t budgeted for until after they’d already been provided, the audit said.
In a March 21 response to a draft of the report, District Superintendent Turina Parker said meals are provided to board members and personnel traveling outside their regular workplace. The BOCES district, which stretches from Saratoga County into the southern Adirondacks, is the second largest in the state, with staff traveling as much as 100 miles one-way, Parker said.
“Due to the sprawling and diverse nature of the programs and services we provide, it is regularly necessary for component staff to travel long distances at odd times throughout the day,” Parker wrote.
Parker acknowledged documentation wasn’t provided in some cases, and said the BOCES district and would review its policies and procedures.