Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Gazette: Audit of Montgomery County schools activity funds reveals inconsistencies

Failure to follow accounting guidelines for events highlighted in internal report
School News | Andrew Ujifusa
The school system's procedures for spending and keeping tabs on the money in activity funds were not always followed during the previous fiscal year, an audit of the funds at Montgomery County Public Schools revealed....
...In fiscal 2010, the schools collected just over $32 million for their activity funds and spent just under $31.7 million. Unused revenues from the funds are collected in an interest-bearing Centralized Investment Fund or are stored in individual school accounts if the school chooses to, said Board of Education member Phil Kauffman (At large) of Olney.
Walt Whitman High in Bethesda collected $1.47 million for its activity fund in fiscal 2010, the largest amount of any public school in the county. But in a report from Roger W. Pisha, internal auditor supervisor for the school system, a variety of problems were described in the audit of 82 schools, including 41 secondary schools....
...The greatest disparity between expenses and receipts was at Montgomery Blair High school, which listed $1.02 million in disbursements and only $828,000 in receipts. Kauffman said his understanding was that Blair took out a loan from the Centralized Investment Fund before fiscal 2010 and is now paying it back.
During a Monday meeting of the Board of Education's Fiscal Management Committee, Kauffman, one of its members, stressed that the problems identified in the report are not new.
"How do we get to the point where we're fixing these things?" he asked.
Officials stressed the importance of business managers continuously educating school staff about accounting procedures for activity funds. Pisha's report's recommendations also include hiring two additional internal auditors "when financial conditions become more favorable." The school system's Internal Audit Unit has not added a full-time position since 1990.
School board officials also discussed making the audit reports more broadly available.
"Folks always are asking for and wanting this info," said school board Vice President Christopher S. Barclay (Dist. 4) of Takoma Park, the committee's chairman.
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Read the School Audits compiled and made public by the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County at our website or click the links below:

BCC HS May 2009 
Kennedy HS Dec 2009 Seneca Valley HS Dec 2009
Seneca Valley HS Jan 2009
BCC HS March 2008 Kennedy HS Aug 2008  Seneca Valley HS May 2008
Blair HS April 2009 Magruder HS June 2009
Blair HS Sept 2007 Magruder HS Jan 2008 Sherwood HS April 2010
Sherwood HS Dec 2008
Blair HS March 2007 Magruder HS Oct 2006 Sherwood HS July 2007  

Magruder HS Sept 2005 
 Blake HS April 2009 Magruder HS May 2004Springbrook HS Oct 2008
Blake HS Nov 2007 Northwest HS Aug 2009 
 
Northwest HS May 2008  Watkins Mill HS June 2009
Churchill HS July 2009Watkins Mill HS Jan 2008
Churchill HS April 2008  
Churchill HS March 2007Northwood HS May 2009Walter Johnson HS Nov 2009 
Clarksburg HS Oct 2009 Northwood HS Sept 2007  Walter Johnson HS Sept 2008 
 Clarksburg HS June 2008 Paint Branch HS June 2009 

Paint Branch HS March 2008  Wheaton HS June 2009 
Wheaton HS Nov 2007 
 Damascus HS Jan 2009Poolesville HS Oct 2008  

Poolesville HS Nov 2007
Edison HS Sept 2009 
Whitman HS April 2009
Edison HS Nov 2007Quince Orchard HS May 2009 Whitman HS April 2007  

Quince Orchard HS Jan 2008  
Richard Mont HS Nov 2009   
Einstein HS April 2009  
Richard Mont HS July 2008
Einstein HS Sept 2007Richard Mont HS March 2007
Wootton HS Nov 2007 
Gaithersburg HS Sept 2009Rockville HS June 2009
Wootton HS June 2009
Gaithersburg HS June 2008Rockville HS Dec 2007

Hoover MS Sept 2008
Julius West MS Nov 2008Montgomery Village MS Oct 2007  
Cabin John MS June 2009White Oak MS Nov 2008Pyle MS Sept 2008

Westland MS June 2009Wood MS Oct 2009



Daly ES Jan 2008Flower Hill ES Feb 2006Glenhaven ES May 2007
Westbrook ES March 2009
Westbrook ES Oct 2005

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