State audit critical of Lancaster's handling of town financials

LANCASTER, N.Y. (WIVB) - The New York State Comptroller's Office is critical of how the Town of Lancaster's former supervisor handled and oversaw taxpayer money.

This audit centers around the town's hiring of an outside company to handle the town's financials last year, something state auditors said shouldn't have happened.

Although not named in the audit, the former town supervisor is Ronald Ruffino. The state Comptroller's Office says the town hired a firm, which is not named in the audit, to a $99,000 contract.

The audit said that according to town code, "the position of director of finance is a public office which must be filled by an individual person, not a firm."

The audit goes on to say: "the former supervisor did not perform his financial duties and did not monitor the work performed by the firm he improperly contracted with to act as director of finance." State auditors say they found 86 budget lines that were overspent by over $9 million.

There is no mention on where this money went and that the town continued to pay the firm even though the contract terms with the company were not fulfilled because they were not monitored. Ruffino, when reached by phone Tuesday, said he needed the additional help because he was dealing with a lot of turnover and says the firm did their jobs to the best of their abilities.

The audit also says: "The Supervisor also compromised the security of the Town's resources by granting unrestricted access to the financial system and online banking to a third party."

While critical of Ruffino's administration, the state Comptroller's Office makes no mention of anything being illegal. More than a dozen corrective actions have been recommended to the town -- some of which the town says they're already moving on.

That includes the hiring of a finance director earlier this year, and having more conversation about the town's financials.