P.V.V.F.D. Passes NYS Comptroller’s Financial Review

In early March the Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department
was notified by the N.Y.S. Comptroller’s Office that they were
going to conduct a risk assessment of the Department’s internal
control of financial policies, procedures, and expenditures.

They provided a list of documents, involving hundreds of pages,
they wanted to review, including: meeting minutes,
bank accounts and statements, budgets, financial
reports, internal audits, inventories, and many more, all of which they
wanted in four days, when they would be on site.

Additionally, they wanted the President, Vice President, Treasurer,
Financial Secretary, Chief, and Board Chairman to be available for
in-person interviews. This was a huge imposition on the lives of our
volunteers who have families, jobs, other fire company responsibilities,
and who also respond to emergencies day and night. In spite of the
onerous task and unreasonable time constraint, everything was
available when the State auditors arrived. The auditors spent many days
examining the information, spending countless hours conducting
interviews, and even returned the following week for more interviews and
additional document reviews.

On April 30th a representative of the Comptroller’s
office told the department President that there were no anomalies found, that our
procedures were determined to follow proper accounting practices, there
would be no further action taken by their office and the risk assessment was
prompted by a complaint from a resident whose name they would not reveal.

According to Bruce Johnson, Chairman of the Board of Directors,
“We are thrilled that the Comptroller’s Office has officially determined our financial
affairs are in excellent shape. This occurs only because our financial team
examines every penny we take in and spend, and makes sure we properly
spend the taxpayers’ money. We are grateful to our past and present company officers,
who put these procedures in place, and continue to keep our financial house in order.”

The Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department is proud to share this information.
This official review and examination validated what we always knew: we are being
prudent and diligent stewards of the money we receive from the taxpayers and donors,
and we will continue to do so.

Bruce Johnson