As Ulster County’s first comptroller Elliot Auerbach becomes more acclimated to his new job, he issued a white paper Monday on “Improving Internal Control in Ulster County’s New Charter Form of Government.”
The report explains that Auerbach will establish new internal controls to examine all areas of county government.
“It will allow us to take a non-judgmental, professional observation of every department in the county and every agency and authority that the county does business with,” he said. “We are really focused in on risk assessment as we approach the beginnings of operating under the new charter, looking to insure that county money is being spent prudently and wisely and most importantly to insure that there is no waste and fraud in county government.”
Auerbach said the county is at a “watershed period” in its history, “and we have enormous opportunity to build on what has worked well in the past, but more importantly, recast the dye on what has not worked well.”
3 comments:
It's recast the "die", as in tap and die, not "dye" as used to color material.
For the future of Ulster County, is Auerbach serious when he says his department "is looking to insure that county money is being spent prudently and wisely and most importantly to insure that there is no waste and fraud in county government?” He changed his mind before the vote on the bond for the purchase of vehicles which was very disappointing. And why are the taxpayers paying for huge furniture purchases for the executive suite on the 6th Floor? The public needs to know how much is being spent (and wasted) on brand new office furniture, including leather chairs ($600)for what? And what department are these purchases being drained from? Instead of jogging down Washington Avenue in the middle of the day he should be doing an audit of these internal purchases. And to think we had faith that he would be more than a "yes" man.
Elliott Auerbach is not a yes man by any stretch of the imagination. What we need to do is sit back and give Comptroller Auerbach a chance to do his job.
As for the bond vote, Elliott was never against the purchase of much needed vehicles for the Sheriff's office or for the method of how to pay for those vehicles, (bonding).
Comptroller Auerbach was concerned that there was nothing in place to monitor the vehicles or to maintain records on the usage of the vehicles. As a result of Elliott raising an alarm, there now will be a fleet manager and a program that essentially will do audits of vehicle usage in the county.
This program started because of Elliott will save taxpayers money and make department heads that use vehicles more accountable.
So I would call that a success, my friend.
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