Report of Regents Audits/Budget and Finance Committee to The Board of Regents

The Regents Committee on Audits/Budget and Finance met on Monday, October 26, 2015, as scheduled. 

Items Discussed

Race to the Top (RTTT) Presentation

With the recent close out of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant, the Chief Financial Officer presented an overview of the budget breakdown, final expenditures and key activities performed under the grant.   Of the $696 M award, New York State spent 100% of the State’s allocation and the LEAs underspent their 50% share by just $70,186.   Just over a thousand grants were awarded: (1) over 700 awarded from the LEA 50% share and (2) over 300 awarded from the state side projects. 

Completed Audits

The Internal Audit Workgroup reviewed 24 audits that are being presented to the Committee this month. Two audits were issued by the Office of Audit Services and the remaining 22 were issued by the Office of the State Comptroller. Sixteen audits were of school districts, four were of special education service providers, two were of colleges, one was of a Board of Cooperative Educational Services, and one of a charter school.

The findings were in the areas of financial reporting, budgeting, claims processing, procurement, payroll, cash, information technology, extra-classroom activity fund, Consolidated Fiscal Reporting, Race to the Top Grant, school lunch, separation benefits, unrestricted fund balance, fuel accountability, online banking, policies and procedures, and incident reporting.

2015 Fiscal Report

Our Chief Financial Officer provided the Members with the fiscal report for September.  Extensive spending controls continue for all funds. General Fund spending reflects the amounts appropriated in the 2015-16 enacted budget. General Fund accounts are in structural balance. Special Revenue accounts are all in structural balance on a current year basis and the accumulated negative balance in the Cultural Education Account is projected to be reduced by approximately $500,000.