NEW YORK COMPTROLLER REPORT: Did the town of Denmark properly audit and approve claims before payment?

LEWIS COUNTY- The Office of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has released an audit focusing on the town of Denmark and whether or not their board members properly audited and approved all claims before final payment.

This audit began on January 1, 2024.

According to the Comptroller’s Office, the audit of claims is often the last line of defense in preventing unauthorized, improper or fraudulent claims from being paid.

Because it is a town board’s responsibility to ensure that tax dollars are spent properly, efficiently and in the best interests of the taxpayers, the Comptroller’s Office says the town board should conduct a thorough and deliberate audit of claims before directing the town supervisor to pay them.

With that said, the findings of this audit suggest the town of Denmark did not properly audit and approve all claims before payment.

During the period January 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025, the town paid 896 claims totaling approximately $4 million from its main operating funds.

While the Board approved an abstract (list of claims) for payment each month, it did not conduct a thorough audit of individual claims to determine whether they contained adequate supporting documentation, represented actual and necessary expenditures and were for valid Town purposes.

In summary, auditors examined nearly 170 claims totaling somewhere around $1.2 million and identified discrepancies with 105 of them, totaling at $673,969. See the following highlights:

• Department head approval was not documented for 102 claims totaling $608,034. Without these documented approvals, Town officials could not ensure that the Town received the goods and services and that the expenditures were properly authorized.
• Four claims for health insurance premiums totaling $17,141 in our sample were not approved for payment by the Board. Because claims for health insurance premiums were not included on abstracts, the Town Supervisor (Supervisor) paid monthly health insurance invoices totaling $259,109 from January 2024 through September 2025 without Board approval. Therefore, the Board could not ensure the accuracy of these payments and verify that only eligible individuals received coverage.
• Five claims did not have adequate support, such as original receipts or itemized invoices, for expenditures totaling $11,773. During our audit, the Supervisor was able to provide original receipts or other adequate supporting documentation from vendors and a claimant to support four claims totaling $11,743. However, when the Board approves claims without sufficient support, it increases the likelihood that the Town could pay for inappropriate expenditures that are not for Town purposes.

In addition, the Town improperly paid two claims totaling approximately $43,500 for paving materials and renting equipment that was used to pave a parking lot owned by a volunteer fire company (fire company), which is a separate not-for-profit entity.

Although the fire company later reimbursed the Town for the cost of the materials and rental services, the fire company did not reimburse the Town for the Town’s highway employee labor costs of approximately $1,500 for paving the parking lot. Because Article VIII, Section 1 of the New York State (NYS) Constitution generally prohibits towns from making gifts or loans to or in aid of a private entity, the Town should not have used town funds and employees to perform paving work for a private entity, such as the fire company.

In October 2025, the Board began taking steps to improve the Town’s claims auditing process. Before approving claims for payment at the October monthly meeting, Board members reviewed the individual claims and signed and dated each claim voucher to document their review and approval.

The report includes four recommendations that, if implemented, will help the Board to continue to improve the Town’s claims auditing process. Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they plan to initiate corrective action.

This audit was conducted pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s (OSC’s) authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law (GML). The audit’s methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.

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