* § 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.

* NB Repealed December 31, 2023