New York Laws
Title 16 - Suffolk County Judicial Facilities Agency
2350-S - Audit, Annual Reports, and Access to Books, Records, and Accounts.

§ 2350-s. Audit, annual reports, and access to books, records, and
accounts. 1. In conformity with the provisions of section five of
article ten of the constitution, the accounts of the agency shall be
subject to the supervision of the comptroller. The agency shall annually
submit to the governor and comptroller and to the chairperson of the
senate finance committee and the chairperson of the assembly ways and
means committee a detailed report pursuant to the provisions of section
twenty-eight hundred of this chapter, and a copy of such report shall be
filed with the county executive and the clerk of the county legislature.

2. The agency shall also submit with its annual report, (a) a debt
issuance report that includes the date of issuance, term, amount,
interest rate and means of repayment. Additionally, the debt schedule
shall also include all refinancings, calls, refundings, defeasements and
interest rate exchange or other such agreements, and for any debt issued
during the reporting year, the schedule shall also include a detailed
list of costs of issuance for such debt; (b) a compensation schedule
that shall include, by position, title and name of the person holding
such position or title, the salary, compensation, allowance and/or
benefits provided to any officer, director or employee in a decision
making or managerial position of the agency whose salary is in excess of
one hundred thousand dollars; (c) a project report that shall describe
in detail the projects undertaken by the agency during the past year;
and (d) a report detailing such agency's code of ethics and a report
that provides an assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control
structure and procedures.

3. Every report submitted under subdivision two of this section shall
also be certified by the county executive and the county chief budget
officer to the effect that the information provided therein is accurate
and correct based upon the respective officer's knowledge.

4. The agency shall submit to the county executive, the chairperson
and ranking minority member of the senate finance committee, and the
chairperson and ranking minority member of the assembly ways and means
committee, for their information, annually not less than sixty days
before the commencement of its fiscal year, in the form submitted to its
members or trustees, budget information on operations and capital
construction setting forth the estimated receipts and expenditures for
the next fiscal year and the current fiscal year, and the actual
receipts and expenditures for the last completed fiscal year.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, if the
agency has a budget with accumulated debt in excess of fifty million
dollars, it shall submit a five year capital plan with its budget.

5. The agency shall provide the secretaries of the senate finance
committee and the assembly ways and means committee, with access to any
and all books, records, audits and contracts of the agency.

6. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the agency
shall annually not later than ninety days before the beginning of its
fiscal year submit its proposed operating budget to the director of the
county's independent budget review office for review and comment.

7. Independent audit reports and financial disclosure of the agency.
The agency shall submit to the governor, the chairperson and ranking
minority member of the senate finance committee, the chairperson and
ranking minority member of the assembly ways and means committee, the
state comptroller, and the director of the county independent budget
review office within thirty days after receipt thereof by the agency, a
copy of an independent audit report performed by a certified public
accounting firm and management letter and any other external examination
of the books and accounts of the agency other than copies of the reports
of any examinations made by the state comptroller.

8. The board of the agency shall appoint an audit committee. Such
committee shall have responsibility to recommend to the board the hiring
of a certified independent accounting firm for the agency, and for the
direct oversight of the performance of the audit by the firm hired by
the board.

9. Each certified independent public accounting firm that performs for
the agency any audit required by this chapter shall timely report to the
audit committee of such agency: (a) all critical accounting policies and
practices to be used; (b) all alternative treatments of financial
information within generally accepted government audit principles that
have been discussed with management officials of such authority,
ramifications of the use of such alternative disclosures and treatments,
and the treatment preferred by the certified independent public
accounting firm; and (c) other material written communications between
the certified independent public accounting firm and the management of
the agency, such as the management letter along with management's
response or plan of corrective action, material corrections identified
or schedule of unadjusted differences, where applicable.

10. The certified independent public accounting firm providing the
agency's annual independent audit will be prohibited from providing
audit services to the respective agency if the lead (or coordinating)
audit partner (having primary responsibility for the audit), or the
audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit, has performed audit
services for the agency in each of the five previous fiscal years of the
agency.

11. The certified independent public accounting firm performing the
agency's audit shall be prohibited from performing any non-audit
services for the agency contemporaneously with the audit, unless
receiving previous written approval by the audit committee including:
(a) bookkeeping or other services related to the accounting records or
financial statements of the agency; (b) financial information systems
design and implementation; (c) appraisal or valuation services, fairness
opinions, or contribution-in-kind reports; (d) actuarial services; (e)
internal audit outsourcing services; (f) management functions or human
services; (g) broker or dealer, investment advisor, or investment
banking services; and (h) legal services and expert services unrelated
to the audit.

12. It shall be prohibited for any certified independent public
accounting firm to perform for the agency any audit service if the chief
executive officer, comptroller, chief financial officer, chief
accounting officer, or any other person serving in an equivalent
position for the agency, was employed by that certified independent
public accounting firm and participated in any capacity in the audit of
the agency during the two year period preceding the date of the
initiation of the audit.

13. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, the state
comptroller may examine the books and accounts of the agency, including
its receipts, disbursements, contracts, leases, sinking funds,
investments and any other matters relating to its financial standing. In
lieu of such an examination, the state comptroller is hereby authorized
to accept from the agency an external examination of its books and
accounts made at the request of the agency.