Tuesday, May 11, 1999
Audit finds funds missing
Tighter oversight urged for schools
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ohio Auditor Jim Petro's office has ordered Cincinnati Public Schools to tighten oversight of student activities spending after auditors discovered $4,000 in undocumented spending at Withrow and Hughes high schools.
The financial audit, which will be released today, directed district administrators to recover about $3,660 from Withrow and $337 from Hughes in student activities money state auditors couldn't reconcile.
At Withrow, the discrepancy came from vending machine proceeds, which benefit athletics. At Hughes, it arose in a bookstore inventory.
The audit evaluated district finances from July 1, 1997, through June 30, 1998. Auditors didn't examine finances at all 79 district schools; rather, they randomly sampled schools and drew conclusions from those findings.
CPS Treasurer Richard Gardner said officials are investigating and plan to seek restitution if documentation isn't found.
“We will perform our own review,” Mr. Gardner said. “We need to make sure that none of the district funds were taken or compromised in any way.”
The findings partly deflate the district's recent momentum toward decentralization. Administrators have been returning more decision-making control to schools, figuring that schools know best where to spend money to raise student achievement.
Under state law, districts' treasurers wield all spending authority.
“We've been trying to decentralize a lot of the decision-making and authority to schools,” Mr. Gardner said. “With student activities, the auditor's office feels we have decentralized too far. We certainly need to comply with state law, but we're hoping there's a middle ground.”
Mr. Gardner said he plans to establish a team of district personnel to implement the recommendations.
The audit also warned that the district risks the loss of its belongings to theft and other misfortune because it lacks an inventory of its assets.
That problem may soon be addressed, because Superintendent Steven Adamowski has included money in his 1999-2000 budget proposal to inventory district assets. The inventory, expected to cost $900,000, probably will be financed over five years.
Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for the auditor's office, declined to comment Monday on audit details until the audit is released today.
But she applauded the district for helping auditors produce a more timely audit. In 1994, it took about 30 months to complete a CPS audit, but today's audit took just 10 months to prepare, she said.
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