By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Aspetuck Health District board on Monday reviewed its annual audit for 2020-21, a report accounting for “significant” issues that need to be corrected as well as a healthy budget surplus.

The audit, prepared by Charles Costello of Hebron, identified two “significant deficiencies” in operations of the agency, which until the end of last year was known as the Westport-Weston Health District. The “Aspetuck” name has been adopted to reflect the addition of Easton to its jurisdiction.

Two problem areas cited

“During the year, the accounting system had a malfunction and district accounting personnel were unable to correct the issue,” Costello’s audit reads. 

The health district “contacted the accounting software manufacturer for assistance. The manufacturer logged into the district accounting records and recorded various materials transactions to ‘dummy’ accounts. These transactions were never corrected by district accounting personnel.”

Costello recommended that information be backed up daily on- and off-site, and that if another glitch occurs, district officials hire a local certified public accountant to help with the problem. 

He said he could not help in such a situation because he is the district’s auditor.

Health Director Mark Cooper told the board that backups are being implemented. 

The other deficiency cited by the auditor was a failure to reconcile records between departments.

“The district purchases and receives vaccines for various health purposes and administers these through its clinic,” the audit states. “The clinic and the accounting department do no reconcile their records to each other on a monthly basis.”

Cooper told the meeting that some staff had signed out doses without specifying if they were regular or high-dose. He told the board that the COVID vaccines from the federal government required strict protocols for tracking, and that the health district would model its overall vaccine tracking by that system.

Surplus: Pandemic fueled surge in revenue from fees

Meanwhile, the health district reported revenues of $1,730,778 for the fiscal year, and spent $1,366,862. That left a surplus of $363,916, according to the audit.

“That’s a big number,” said Costello.

The auditor said permit fees for reviewing pools, construction projects and the like accounted a large share of the surplus.

Cooper said that with the pandemic and most people staying and working at home, many embarked on home-improvement projects. 

He said that the health district typically reviews about 100 permits monthly, but that ballooned to about 300 a month at the peak of construction during the lockdown.

That trend has since tapered off, but is still above normal, he said.

No reference to financial mismanagement allegations

The audit made no mention of missing district funds, an allegation cited in a federal lawsuit filed by a former staffer, Louis D’Onofrio, who had been the district’s director of clinical services and later ran as the Libertarian candidate for selectman last fall.

D’Onofrio quit in August 2021 after making a series of complaints about the district’s management, including a lack of sanitary conditions in the agency headquarters on Bayberry Lane, such as rodent droppings.

He also claimed his right to free speech was violated by Cooper.

D’Onofrio’s case was filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven. A hearing was held Jan. 24 on a motion to dismiss the case, filed by the lawyers for the health district and Cooper. Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer has yet to rule on the motion.