What happened in the case of the Long Island school districts? Were there audit failures?
Hevesi: The SED has labored under the same budget constraints as the Comptroller’s Office, and has not established its own audit program for school districts. Now, we have also learned the bitter lesson that independent audits of financial statements are fairly narrow in scope and do not necessarily address issues of critical importance to government and the public trust. I’m talking about such things as fraud, internal control, mismanagement, misconduct, and compliance with budgets. While financial statement audits may provide information for outsiders to evaluate the creditworthiness of the school district, their focus does not make them a substitute for the fundamentals of making sure that money intended for educational purposes is expended appropriately. CPAJ: What is the status of your office’s involvement in the Long Island cases? Hevesi: In the case of the Roslyn school district, where there are allegations of criminal behavior in the misuse of $8 million, the district attorney
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