Negatives can spawn positives, the saying goes, and nowhere is this more evident than in an avalanche of school audits that followed some shady dealings by school personnel on Long Island.

In one district, two school officials were convicted of bilking the taxpayers out of $11 million. Upon the resolution of this case, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli ordered audits of all public schools and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services in the state. He gave auditors until March 31, 2010, to complete them all. His office has wrapped up 548 school audits since 2005 and has about 200 more under way. All of the rest will begin by next June, his office has announced.

Audits have been completed on several districts in this area, and they have been very useful. Generally, except in the few extreme cases in which malfeasance or gross negligence emerges, audits point out areas where better practices can be employed or more vigilance instituted. Those have been the cases in the local audits.

Mostly, the audits have shown a need for better controls over extra-curricular funds, more reliable bookkeeping procedures and more exclusive selection of personnel with computer access. These are not violations of anything except best practices. They don't point to a need for prosecution of individuals — just more conscientiousness or better education on how to conduct daily business. Findings on audits rarely indicate bad people.

Statewide, the audits have shown three fundamental mistakes in school procedures:

  Inappropriate payments to school officials when they leave a district (in 7 percent of the audits) or for personal services that they are not entitled to in their contracts (16 percent). Audits found a number of school-district attorneys receiving retirement benefits, though they aren't employees of the district and are not, therefore, entitled to them. As workers under contract, they do not qualify for pensions. This was not found to apply in any of the districts in the North Country.

  Deficiencies in the claims audit process to ensure expenses are appropriate (36 percent).

  Weaknesses in the security of the districts' IT systems (44 percent).

Any of the deficiencies uncovered by audits in this region should be deemed as helpful to the overall efficiency of the district. If money involved in the conduct of extra-curricular activities is not receiving appropriate attention, it only helps the district, the activities and the taxpayers to have that pointed out.

No one should overreact to a negative audit, but no one should ignore it, either. We appreciate the conscientious application of resources toward the project by DiNapoli and his office. This is a beneficial use for the efforts of the comptroller.