()()()() Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/Auditor%20General/Octob
> er%202015%20School%20Activity%20Funds%20Audit%20Ye
> ar%20Ended%2006-30-2015.pdf
>
> They did an audit of School Activity Funds that
> was published last Fall. The Charms system and
> usage of the Booster clubs to handle the public
> funds and records was brought up many times. This
> audit covered the first year of the Charms setup
> (2014-15). Of note-
>
> page 3-They were unable to verify/audit the Charms
> cash balances. Bank reconciliations were not being
> completed monthly by the school or reviewed by
> FCPS Financial Services. Lack of supporting
> documentation.
>
> page 5-Charms disbursements were checked
>
> page 10-the Charms system was the exception to the
> fair representation of the transactions.
>
> page 26-three cases where Boosters did not obtain
> prior approval for disbursements. West Potomac
> Band Boosters is noted. Congratulations. There
> were probably lots more of these situations at
> other schools since they obviously could not check
> everything.
>
> page 33 and page 34- There is a whole separate
> section for Charms. In spite of a manual,
> guidance, training, etc. documentation was
> incomplete and reconciliations were not properly
> completed. Schools that did not use an MOA fared
> better. Boosters who signed an MOA did not turn
> records in to the school system as required.
> Schools could not clarify some of the documents
> they did receive. Several schools had no or
> incomplete documentation. The schools did not
> properly monitor the Boosters that signed the MOA.
> There wasn't any centralized process set up to
> monitor the Charms accounts.
>
> Financial Services (and the school personnel)
> spend a ton of time cleaning up this mess and
> recreating the reconciliations from the entire
> school year and are basically in the doghouse and
> on the Watch List. The auditors recommended that
> discontinuing the MOA be considered so that
> documentation could be controlled by the schools
> and to improve consistency. Otherwise, they were
> told they needed to get their act together pronto,
> to put it nicely.
>
> Why "it isn't feasible to eliminate MOA's because
> they have already been submitted and approved" is
> a Huge Mystery because the school system has the
> right to terminate the MOA at any time for
> non-compliance or other problems, and there was
> lots of that going on. Since when does a
> non-profit sign a contract with a school system
> and then violate it? There were numerous cases of
> that.
>
> It is also noted that several million dollars was
> run through the Charms system that year. There is
> probably a lot more than that now.
>
> It is pretty amazing that nobody caught on to some
> of this considering how many records they had to
> pull that year for FOIA requests. Nobody (schools
> or Boosters) thought about how the records weren't
> making it to the school offices as required, or
> how bank statement checks weren't being done by
> school staff? Strange........
>
> Some of the schools are bringing in part-time help
> to do all this. Probably not a bad idea. Looking
> at the money spent on staff clothing, working
> lunches, working dinners, parties, etc. they can
> well afford to do it, since the money for this
> comes from the same pot (the ECA). Let the parents
> be parents. They have enough to do without working
> for the school system for free and getting
> mentioned in audits, etc.
Sounds like a win for the Democrat regulatory state. Force out the private sector. Implement complicated new rules and regulations. Hire new staff to comply with regulatory regime. Hire new staff to monitor compliance with new regulatory regime. And people wonder why their taxes keep going up.