(1) Every school
district shall, within nine months of the close of its fiscal year, arrange for
and undergo an independent audit of its financial records and submit the report
of this audit to the Department. The audit will be conducted, at a minimum, in
accordance with the compliance supplement for Massachusetts school districts
issued by the Department. The Department may waive the requirement of an annual
compliance supplement audit for an elementary school district that has only one
school.
(2) The Department may, at
its discretion, audit all or any part of a district's records to ascertain
whether the student, personnel and financial data reported by a school district
are accurate, to ensure that the school district is complying with the
applicable laws and regulations governing school district expenditures and
operations, and to determine whether the school district is maintaining
effective controls over revenues, expenditures, assets, and liabilities.
(a) Audits by the Department shall be
conducted according to the Governmental Auditing Standards published by the
United States General Accounting Office.
(b) School districts shall cooperate with the
Department in the scheduling and conduct of audits. If a school district fails
to comply with Department requests for documentation within ten working days,
the Department may consider the reported data in question to be unsupported and
take appropriate actions based on that finding.
(c) At the conclusion of an audit the
Department shall conduct an exit interview with the school district to explain
any actions that will be taken as a result of the audit finding, and shall
issue a written audit report. The audit report may be used to adjust school aid
or local contribution requirement calculations.
(d) A school district that, at the conclusion
of an audit, disagrees with an audit determination contained in the written
audit report issued to the district by the Department may, within ten working
days after receipt of the written audit report, file a written request to the
Commissioner for reconsideration of the audit determination.
(e) The request for reconsideration shall
include: a statement of the issues disputed, with appropriate supporting
documentation, and copies of all documents, correspondence, data, exhibits and
other information, including affidavits of witnesses where relevant, which the
district wishes the Commissioner to consider in reviewing the challenged audit
determination.
(f) The Commissioner
or his or her designee, upon review of the Department's audit records and the
district's audit reconsideration submission, may either:
1. issue a final audit determination based on
the records submitted by the Department and the district; or
2. convene a hearing to further consider the
district's appeal, and thereafter issue a final audit determination. The
decision of the Commissioner or his or her designee shall be final.
