The Baldwin, Elmont and Massapequa school districts in Nassau County and the East Islip, Riverhead and Sachem school districts in Suffolk County have been added to the 15 school districts that will be subject to an audit of administrative expenses, such as credit card usage, meals and travel, New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi announced recently.

Nine other districts were previously named, including: East Meadow, Locust Valley, North Shore, Plainedge, Syosset and Westbury in Nassau County and Three Village, Central Islip and Wyandanch in Suffolk County. The auditors have begun work in Westbury and will be at the other districts in the fall.

In addition to this audit, in-depth audits examining internal controls over financial operations - purchasing, payroll, cash collections and accounting - and detailed testing of individual transactions are under way in the Manhasset and Hempstead school districts and will begin shortly at the Lawrence and Brentwood school districts. The comptroller's office is also auditing the Roslyn school district.

"After reviewing a number of requests from concerned parents and local officials, we made a determination to review the school districts where an audit would be most helpful. We have no knowledge that anyone in these districts had done anything inappropriate, so no judgment should be passed on these schools until the audits are complete," Hevesi said. "It is my hope that these initiatives will improve school districts' operations, fix any problems and assure the public that its tax dollars are being spent appropriately."

Hevesi announced a comprehensive program in July to increase oversight of schools statewide in response to the scandals at the Roslyn and William Floyd school districts. The program includes in-depth and administrative audits of school districts, a review of the effectiveness of independent audits and hands-on training seminars in the areas of internal controls, fraud prevention and detection and auditing standards. In addition, a working group composed of a broad coalition of education and fiscal organizations is meeting to develop a specific set of recommendations for strengthening auditing, training and financial oversight by school district officials and their boards.

"Most school district officials are honest, hardworking professionals and most schools are well-managed. Their job is made difficult by the few who steal," Hevesi said. "It is critical now that we work together to restore public confidence in all of our schools."