And the Inspector General says...

The Montgomery County Inspector General has released his report on the MCPS surprise surplus from last spring.


What the Inspector General Found:

1) The Monthly Financial Reports MCPS provides to County elected leaders
present the estimated year-end financial results of MCPS relative to the
budget. The reports display differences between amounts budgeted and
estimates of revenues and expenditures but should present more complete
actual revenue and expenditure data for analysis.

2) The actual information reported in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) differs from the data presented as “actual” in the operating budget submissions.
MCPS is able to reconcile the amounts but reconciliations are not presented
in MCPS documents. Internal service fund information is only presented in the CAFR.

3) Although Maryland State law requires that the County appropriate funds by specified categories, and that the BOE request and report by these categories (as it does in the Monthly Financial Reports and the CAFR), fewer than 25 out of over 1,000 pages in the MCPS operating budget present data related to the State categories. The budget documents do not clearly link the State categories to the operating or program budget data.

The presentation makes it difficult to evaluate the request by State categories and determine the impact of funding decisions. However, we noted that in the December, 2011 submission of the Superintendent’s FY2013 Operating Budget, MCPS included a new pie chart addressing “Where the Money Goes by State Category.”

4) At the time the Council made its final decision on the MCPS appropriation for FY 2012, the Council staff had not been provided updated information regarding the projected health benefits costs in FY 2011. The information was not presented to the Council Education Committee or the Council for review and consideration.

Mcps Final Report Jan 2012