HUNTINGTON, NY, MARCH 14… The Executive Board of the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce has announced the final findings of its recent New York State audit by the Office of the State Comptroller. The Executive Board also confirmed its previous plan to pay back the State and to repair any damage to the organization as a result of the serious shortcomings in the cost documentation and grant administration by the Chamber’s past management, prior to 2005.

The current Chamber Executive Board has been working in partnership with the State Comptroller’s office to analyze and rectify what had happened under the previous leadership. The Executive Board plans to pay $124,872 to New York State, including $85,198 to the Department of Economic Development and $39,674 to Empire State Development Corp.

In the audit, the State found that, in the past under the leadership of past president Dennis Sneden, the Chamber had improperly requested reimbursement, which included duplicating payments, using unpaid invoices as documentation and intermixing funds. In addition, inadequate processes and ineffective management in the past had prevented the Chamber from completely achieving some of the stated goals of the grants.

The current Chairman of the Executive Board, Jim Kelly said, “The primary focus of our new leadership has been to clean up the problems from the past and to implement practices and procedures that ensure honest dealings, open communications and complete candor. This has been successfully completed. With our repayment to the State we hope to close the book on the Sneden era of the Chamber and continue on our path of fostering commerce in out town and region.”

Throughout the audit, the current Board provided all information and documentation that the State requested. “Because of our involvement in the actual process, none of us was surprised by the audit results,” said Kelly. “We also knew that District Attorney Spota had been looking into the previous leadership and the Chamber’s past practices. When the audit began, we were eager to be cooperative and open with everyone and to come to a resolution over past mismanagement of the Chamber.”

“Unfortunately, the previous leadership was not as fully transparent in their financial management as they should have been,” Kelly continued. “We plan to stay open and visible because we will have nothing to hide, ever.” In addition to guaranteeing the current Chamber’s cooperation with the audit, Kelly made certain that the Board received no grant payments in 2005/2006 during the clean-up process.

John Caracciolo, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board stated, “This announcement is clear evidence of the current leadership’s commitment to a policy of integrity, trustworthiness and candor.