KINGSTON – An audit of 39 Ulster County departments, agencies and offices shows they spend over $106,000 annually on memberships to organizations and associations and of that, over $99,000 of those are not mandated and are the choice of each department.
The study, by County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach’s office, found there were 107 memberships of which five were mandated as a result of laws, regulations or grant and program terms.
Auerbach said in these continued tough economic times, while many of those memberships may be worthwhile, they need to be reassessed.
“I equate it to the leaky bucket of water. It’s these small pinholes on the bottom, when all of a sudden you look up and a $100,000 out of the $350 million of county money is vaporizing,” he said. “We need to be cautious and careful as we move forward. We need to scrutinize every dime and every dollar being spent.”
The largest mandated expense was the Department of Social Services for $4,112 to the New York Public Welfare Association. The largest non-mandated expense was for $19,611 from the Golden Hill Residential Health Care Facility to the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.
Ulster Tourism belonged to the most organizations and associations – 11, with the county legislature spending the most at over $30,000 for six memberships.
(Copyright © 2010 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc)
1 comment:
Amazing...Next audit is to find wasteful spending in the area of periodicals, magazines and newspaper subscriptions. Every department does not need to have subscriptions especially if most of the articles can be read on line. It may not seem like a lot but every little bit helps.
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