By Hank Russell
A recent audit from the New York State Comptroller’s Office found that the Garden City Union Free School District’s information technology (IT) department failed to properly maintain and keep track of its IT assets.
Between July 1, 2022 and June 20, 2023, auditors found that district officials “did not always properly track or inventory IT assets.” In addition, the district did not properly maintain records of its IT assets, nor did they secure them. “As a result, officials cannot assure taxpayers that all IT assets are adequately accounted for and would be detected if lost, stolen or misused,” according to the auditors.
They also found that 23% of the assets the auditors tracked were not properly accounted for. This included four Chromebooks and an iPad — at a cost of almost $1,800 — that could not be located, eleven computers, smartboards and printers, including seven with a combined cost of $13,645 and four other assets with unknown costs, were not inventoried.
The audit also noted that there were no comprehensive written policies regarding inventories for IT equipment, no annual inventories conducted for the IT assets and no safeguards in place to secure the equipment.
When visiting the schools within the district, the auditors noted that the server rooms in the middle school were not secured or monitored. “This could allow unauthorized individuals to damage, destroy or steal equipment that would require considerable time and money to replace or repair,” the audit stated.
At the high school, the server room was not secured either by access control or surveillance monitoring. The audit further reported that the ceiling had water stains. The district superintendent, assistant superintendent for business and finance and IT manager insisted the stains were old and replacing the ceiling tiles was not a priority.
Among one of the findings was that some of the assets that were inventoried were entered in duplicate. The IT manager insisted that it was an error.
The Comptroller’s Office recommended that the district maintain their inventory records, keep them up to date and perform an annual inventory.
Long Island Life & Politics has reached out to the district and has yet to hear back from them as of press time.