The Oklahoma State Board of Education will create a special task force because of allegations of misappropriation of funds at Swink Public Schools.
The audit uncovered alleged fraud by the district treasurer and encumbrance clerk which totaled nearly $235,000.
However, the State Board of Education also wants to know why the audit firm Sanders, Bledsoe, & Hewett failed to uncover the alleged embezzlement in the district which occurred since at least 2011. The firm told the Board that irregularities they find are often conveyed in letters to the district instead of in actual audits.
“I have a real problem with audit findings that don’t make their way into the audit,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said. “This is a cautionary tale for other districts around the state. If an audit looks too good to be true, it might be. It is important for administrators and board members to maintain tight controls and ask questions, especially given the fiscal challenges facing our schools.”
Included among the instances of alleged fraud at Swink Public Schools, altered school district checks payable to the treasurer and her relatives, travel reimbursement for trips not taken, unapproved fuel charge cards, and unauthorized purchases including alcohol and tobacco.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Education have entered the investigation as well. Prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges in the near future.
The State School Board also found of the 114 school district audits that were conducted by Sanders, Bledsoe & Hewett, all but seven were “clean” and absent of findings.
The task force will work with Swink Public School officials to strengthen its financial oversight in the southeastern Oklahoma school district.
There is no such thing as a perfect third-party audit with no deficiencies or comments. Those processes are meant to determine how an organization can strive to become a perfect, efficient, legal accounting machine – and there is no perfect anything.
This applies to municipalities also – be wary of totally clean audits.
As the accounting saying goes – ‘you can’t bayonet the wounded without drawing blood.