"We're going back into the business of auditing."

So said State Comptroller Alan Hevesi at a news conference held last Tuesday in Mineola. The purpose of the conference was to announce the Long Island school districts that will be subject to in-depth audits by Hevesi's office.

The Manhasset, Lawrence, Hempstead districts in Nassau County and the Brentwood district in Suffolk are the four districts that will face comprehensive audits. The Roslyn School District is already being audited by Hevesi's office. The embezzlement scandal in Roslyn and a similar controversy in the William Floyd district is, of course, the reason behind the new policy toward auditing school districts.

In addition to the four districts, Hevesi's office will conduct a fifth audit, one that will examine administrative expenses in at least 15 other districts on the Island, including North Shore, East Meadow, Locust Valley, Plainedge, Syosset and Westbury in Nassau County and Three Village, Central Islip and Wyandanch in Suffolk. A process is under way to select the remaining districts for the fifth audit.

At the press conference, Hevesi said that in recent weeks, his office has received 59 separate complaints involving 130 allegations of mismanagement in at least 32 school districts in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. That was how the auditing decisions were made.

"We chose to look at the [districts] where an audit seemed most likely to be useful," Hevesi said. "But allegations are just that, allegations. I have no knowledge that anyone in any of these districts has done anything improper and no one should jump to any conclusions. It is my hope that these audits will be useful in improving operations, but will find no impropriety. However, if there is wrongdoing, we will expose it and will hold accountable those who are responsible. We will refer any potentially criminal issues to District Attorney Denis Dillon and Thomas Spota and cooperate with them to support the work they are doing."

According to Hevesi, the four audits of the specific school districts will review internal controls over all basic financial operations---purchasing, payroll, cash collections, and accounting---and include testing of individual transactions in each of those areas. Hevesi added that the fifth audit would look at the administrative expenses such as credit card usage, meals and travels in the 15 districts under that audit.

Hevesi said that his office is a month into its audit of the Roslyn district. A staff member added that "six or seven" comptroller's office personnel are auditing Roslyn's finances. The average audit takes six to nine months to complete.

"Even the most detailed audit is not a guarantee of protection against fraud and mismanagement," Hevesi admitted. "It can only work when it is one part of a layer of good management. The best protection is effective internal controls inside the school district."

Toward that end, Hevesi said that his office is implementing a training program to improve accountability methods for all the state's districts. Working with school board, superintendent and business officials associations, the comptroller's office will participate in up to 20 training seminars involving areas of internal controls, fraud prevention and detection, and auditing standards.

In addition, there will be various seminars on accountability. Hevesi's office will also update training manuals and reference guides for use by school business officials and help to develop "sensible practices" materials for school superintendents and school board members.

In all, Hevesi's office is requesting $5.4 million in extra funding from Albany, mostly to hire 89 new auditors. There are over 700 public school districts in New York State and the comptroller's office hopes to eventually conduct up to 140 audits per year.

"I promised that by the beginning of August, my office would begin five school district audits on Long Island in response to the scandals in the Roslyn and William Floyd school districts," Hevesi said. "I believe that most school district officials are honest, hard-working professionals and most schools are well-managed. But the public clearly needs assurance that their school dollars are being spent properly. We are conducting these audits to help restore public confidence in the schools and to identify problems and mismanagement."