School District Behind on Financial Reconciliation
Posted
Dennis Maley
BRADENTON – At Tuesday's Manatee School Board meeting, board members were told that the reconciliation of district financial accounts is far behind because of a technical problem that occurred last December.
While giving the audit committee report to the board, committee chair Dr. Susan Agruso said that the monthly reconciliation of the district’s bank accounts had at one point been 11 months behind and is still not nearly caught up.
Agruso, a retired New York school district superintendent, said that the delinquency threatens the district's ability to complete its audit for the 2017 fiscal year, which is due by January. She said the issue stems from "a computer problem" that happened last December and stressed the serious nature of the situation.
Rebecca Roberts, CFO for Manatee Schools, was asked to explain. Roberts confirmed that a technical glitch in the computer system shut down the reconciliation process completely. Roberts said that they are aware of what happened and have caught up through April, and that they are on track to be caught up through June by later this month.
Prior to the audit committee briefing, no one within the district had informed board members about the problem. The audit committee, the rest of which is comprised of CPAs, was created in response to financial irregularities within the district that were discovered in 2012, when it was revealed that millions of dollars in hidden deficits were being falsely presented to the board as a surplus.
A technical glitch was similarly blamed for the initial error, which the district's administration at the time kept from the board as they attempted to devise a solution. In the aftermath, the district's practice of internal auditing done by staff who reported to the superintendent rather than the board, was cited as one of the enabling factors.
Agruso, who was added to the committee in January of 2016, was asked to return next month to update the board on the district's progress in the matter.
Comments
No comments on this item
Only paid subscribers can comment
Please log in to comment by clicking here.