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A state audit has found that Middle Neck Manor School for the Deaf charged taxpayers more than $282,000 it wasn't entitled to over two years, including about $76,000 in salary and benefits for its executive director.
But the school argues it was entitled to much of that money, although it concedes some was erroneously billed to the state.
The audit questioned state payments due to lack of records, inappropriate depreciation and the amount of compensation from state funds to Mark R. Prowatzke, executive director for 20 years, who also serves as executive director of other entities within the Mill Neck Organization.
"As we have seen in numerous audits, providers are taking advantage of lax oversight of the state's special education programs," Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said of the audit of the two fiscal years preceding June 30, 2010.
The state could seek to recover the money through future payments, although Mill Neck said it still stands by many of the charges being questioned in the report, including compensation to its director, which it...