Helium Hands Highlight Board of Education Meeting on July 14

July 14, 2009, is a big day for the Montgomery County Board of Education. One of the items on the agenda concerns ratification of the purchase card contract with American Express.

This no cost contract is such a deal for MCPS that it can be on the consent agenda, because a discussion of the merits isn't necessary. Its all set forth in Dr. Weast's memo. Here is what our data driven Superintendent has to say, in his own words, about the past performance of the vendor:

Based on the company’s past performance and that American Express Corporate Services has agreed to the request for a special extension, I am recommending that the Board of Education extend the contract through September 2010.

That's it folks, no data on how many cards, how many employees get the cards, or what employees are allowed to charge. Even the contract is omitted from the package, so we can't see the interest rates or better yet, how much in the way of rebates come back to our school system by way of this really nifty contract.

But, does it really matter? This contract was brought before the BOE in 2000, 2003, and 2006 for approval - also on the consent agenda, and also without the contract or other documentation on performance, rebates, costs, or volume of cards used.

Each of these items have a note that says this procurement is at no cost to the school system. Do we really believe that? We must have a wonderful school system then, because our employees only charge what they should, approvals and reviews are done in a timely manner, and balances are always paid on time, so finance charges and potential misuse of the cards aren't an issue. Here is a snip from a 2009 audit by the Maryland General Assembly, Office of Legislative Audits:

MCPS needs to improve controls and policies governing the use of credit cards and travel. For example, new MCPS credit cards were sent directly to the employee who placed the card order with the bank rather than to an independent employee. Also, certain credit cards purchases were not logged nor subject to supervisory review.

Our Board of Education will likely continue to raise their collective helium hands and vote en masse to approve this contract again - after all, we're Montgomery County, who cares about the reports of the state auditors, we're superior performers, and supporting data - that's just for kids.