VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AGENCY HALTS BOARD STIPENDS FOLLOWING COMPTROLLER'S AUDIT

A special vocational school district funded by the county and state has stopped paying its board members $240 stipends for each biweekly meeting they attend, following a new audit by the Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman.

The audit of the Nassau County Vocational Education and Extension Board ("VEEB") found that the stipends had been paid since at least 1992 even though a 1998 Comptroller's Office audit concluded that they were apparently unauthorized under state law. Following the 1998 audit, VEEB said it would stop paying the stipends unless it obtained legislative authorization. The new audit found that the stipends had continued, even though no legislative authorization was obtained.

"I welcome VEEB's decision to stop paying its Board members to attend meetings, a step that should have been taken in 1998," Comptroller Weitzman said. The vocational education agency ceased paying the stipends as of January 1, 2005.

The Vocational Education and Extension Board, which has an annual budget of $6.6 million and a $3.8 million contract with Nassau County, is licensed by New York State to conduct courses in occupational skills. It currently provides training in emergency medical services; fire suppression and related emergency services; and public fire safety education. In addition, it conducts a licensed practical nursing education program that is not funded by Nassau County.

Of the nine members of VEEB's board, three are appointed by the County Executive, three by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services ("BOCES") and three by the Superintendent of BOCES, subject to the confirmation of the County Legislature.

The audit also found weaknesses in the agency's budget process and internal financial controls.

The county pays VEEB's $148,000 annual rent for its headquarters building in Uniondale, which is owned by the Nassau Health Care Corporation. Since 1993, however, VEEB has used up to 85 percent of the space in the building for its nursing program, which is not funded by the county.

"As a result," Comptroller Weitzman said, "the county is inadvertently funding a non-county program. According to VEEB management reports, the nursing program produces revenues well in excess of the annual rental cost. In other words, VEEB's nursing program ought to absorb the cost of its own rent."

Comptroller Weitzman said the rent issue is part of VEEB's larger failure to properly account for costs and to charge them to the programs that incur them. "We recommend that the county's annual contract with VEEB require a detailed budget that clearly accounts for all revenues and expenditures by program, including the value of donated space," he said.

 Viewing documents in PDF format requires the free Adobe Reader
If you have trouble opening PDF documents, click here

VEEB Report (~ 150 kb, 25 pages, pdf file)