Niskayuna taps Questar 3 BOCES for internal audit work; committee recommends fixed‑assets review for 2024‑25

The Niskayuna Central School District’s audit and finance committee heard from Mark Bodette, audit manager for Questar 3 BOCES, on plans to complete the district’s internal audit for the 2024‑25 school year and to begin planning for 2025‑26.

The district administration said the board appointed Questar 3 BOCES as the district’s internal auditor in August. Mark Bodette told the committee, “I plan to begin that pretty much after I walk out of this meeting,” and said he will personally perform the 2024‑25 field work next week. He described the internal audit program as having two elements: an annual risk assessment and a year‑specific focus area. Bodette said the risk assessment will likely take place in winter and the committee will select the 2025‑26 focus area in the spring.

The committee recommended that the 2024‑25 audit focus on fixed assets. The district noted previous revisions to the fixed‑assets policy, which raised the capitalization threshold to $5,000. Officials told the committee that the district has not performed a districtwide physical inventory in some time and that the business office is rebuilding procedures for tracking assets. The recommendation reflects those factors and the expectation that the audit will produce best‑practice recommendations for inventory and procedure updates.

Questar 3 described its staffing and approach. Bodette said his internal‑audit team is four people and that his unit also can draw on Questar 3 financial services such as state aid planning, BOCES reimbursement services and GASB assistance. He said audit sampling will be drawn from the fixed‑asset records the district maintains for financial reporting and that if most assets in that system are IT devices, the sample will reflect that distribution unless the committee specifically instructs otherwise: “If 60% of your assets are IT assets, I’m going to pick 60% of my sample,” Bodette said. He added that Chromebooks and other items under the capitalization threshold may not be included in the financial‑reporting system and therefore may not appear in the random sample.

Committee members discussed whether IT should be treated separately. Members said IT can be a large category and can be easier to locate due to device management tools; Bodette said he can include IT in a general fixed‑assets audit or exclude it if the committee requests. The committee did not move to formally exclude IT and left the recommendation as a districtwide fixed‑assets review that can include IT devices present in the district’s reporting system.

The committee chair said the audit firm and district staff will coordinate on a schedule to deliver the risk assessment and audits over the coming year so the committee can review reports in regularly scheduled meetings.