Hey, if everyone will take their seats, we're going to go ahead and get started. >> Good morning and welcome uh to our meeting today. We'll start off with a roll call by Joyce. Okay. Um Dave Thally.
>> Mark by Master, I know he's absent. Alyssa Darin, she's also absent. Um Michael Dixon >> here. >> Darina Berman, she's also absent. Leandre Camel >> here. >> Frank Barbie >> here.
>> We have Quorum. >> Okay. Thank you. Then we'll do introductions and we'll start down at the end with Kristen. Welcome. As I said to you earlier, it's nice to have you with us. Thank you very much. Garcia, Office of the General Council. >> Heather Frederick, chief financial officer.
>> Bob Bliss, Office of Inspector General. >> Alex Sosa, OIG's Office. >> Stephanie Tara, OIG's office. Diana Garza, OIG's office. >> Randy Lois, IG's office. >> Tracy Shear, Inspector General's Office. >> Dave Tally, audit.
>> Theresa Michael, Inspector General. >> Carrie High, Council to Inspector General. Joyce Edin Joyce Edison inspector general's office >> Christina Daniels Inspector General's office >> Michael Dixon audit committee >> DeAndre Camel audit committee
>> Frank Barbie audit committee >> Chantel Nulls RSM chief operating office >> who do we have uh we've got Gloria >> good morning >> good Good morning.
Is there anyone else? Okay. First, we'll uh are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? >> Okay. I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move. >> There a second. Second.
>> Second. All in favor? All opposed? Passes 40. Uh next, you take a minute and review the minutes of the May 15th meeting. And after you've had a chance to With that, I'll accept a motion to approve. >> Leandre off a motion to approve the
minutes as presented. Do we have a second? >> Second. Discussion. All in favor? All oppose? Passes four zero. Public comments. >> No comments. >> Hearing none. We'll move to the inspector general report. Terry.
>> All right. We have a real quick update. Um we will be getting ready to start working on well we are already working on the audit plan for the upcoming year and I will be sending out um our surveys to everyone that's here in the room as
well as people that are online um get your input your input as to what we look at and is very important. Um we need to have as many um ideas and different perspectives as possible. So, if you would like to meet with me and the audit
team or Mr. Law individually, let me know. Um, but otherwise, I'll send out the surveys to everybody and I really appreciate if you could take some time, give us your input so that we make sure that we use our resources to the best that we can. Um, we do have limited
resources, but we do have a lot of things that we need to make sure that we're covering. So, we want to make sure that we're not duplicating anything that the auditor general is looking at, anything that RSM has looked at. Um, and we want to make sure that we're not just looking at the same things over and over
again. So, um, please, uh, keep an eye out for those emails for your surveys. And other than that, that is it for the update. >> I have a I have a question, Mr. Chair, on on this planning on this planning. Um, is there a way that your office
could provide us with the last 12 months of top I don't know, let's say top three or four issues that we had some real issues with in our prior meetings.
Is that possible? Yeah, I can I can go through and go through our minutes and kind of get um some of the different questions that people have brought up and >> topics >> topics, right? Yeah, I can do that most definitely and I can include that along with kind of a summary of some of the
things that we've seen um through the different complaints that we've received and everything. I kind of give you an overview of what this past year um we've seen in a broad scale um both investigations, audit and contract >> because there's only a certain amount of
input that we can give within a certain 100% of the time it's available. So automatically let's say 80% of it is already accounted for. So 20% or 10% may be where we can provide some input. Right. >> Definitely. Definitely. and and I will
get you as much information so you can take a look at it and so you can make as best decision as possible in a book. >> Sure, >> that would be helpful. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Okay. Well, we'll move on to uh the audit of the field trip charter bus
services in and out of the county. Alex and Stephanie. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. Um, so to kind of go over it again, this is going to be the presentation of the audit for purchase contract 21ca for fieldtrip charter bus
services in and out of county. There you go. It was off. So, a little bit of the background. This contract was approved by the board in October of 2020. And between the period of July 2021 through June of 2025, there was 23
different bid awarded charter bus vendors that were approved in this contract. And there was a total of around 11.9 million that was spent to various charter bus vendors from this same period. And then here's a little bit of a chart to kind of go over it.
For the bid awarded, there was 23, but only 19 of them were used for a total of 11.8 million. And then there was 14 different non-bid vendors for around 100,000, which comes up to that 11.9 million. The objectives of this audit were to
determine the extent of compliance with the different terms and conditions that were in this contract and to see if the non bidawwarded vendors complied with the district policies and procedures. So the first conclusion, we did on-site
observations starting in May of 2025 at seven different schools for 20 different charter bus vendors from seven different companies. And one of the main things we noticed is that 18 of the 20 different drivers, they did not have their contractor ID badge with them, which
means that they did not get background checked, which is one of the conditions in the contract to ensure that they all pass their background check since they'll be driving students from various locations. And then some other things that we noted, there was about four different
buses that had some sort of non-functioning equipment, which is also a condition in the contract. For example, two buses, they didn't have working uh DVD or TV systems. One of them also the TV and DVD systems didn't work and the bathroom also did not have
a lock that was working. So, it was inoperable due to privacy reasons since the door couldn't close. And after one of the observations, the principal let us know that the bus actually broke down during the trip and the replacement was not suitable due to poor air
conditioning, ripped seats, and then no seat belts for the students. We also did a follow-up observation in February 2026 to see if some of these conditions were improved upon. We went to five sample schools
for eight different charter bus vendors from four different companies and we only noted one exception of the driver not having the required ID badge and this was due to them actually being a subcontractor to a bid awarded vendor and while there is provisions in the
contract to allow uh subcontracting they need a prior approval from purchasing and they are to follow the same conditions as the awarded vendors and then there's a a little bit of a table here just kind of going over the difference what we've seen from the first set of observations. There was
around 90% of drivers and then this time around there was just one and then I'll pass it over to Stephanie. Good morning. I'm going to continue with the second conclusion. Vendors overbuild the district by $167,000
for 180 sample invoices. Between the audit period of July 2021 through June 2025, 11.8 million was paid by the district to approve charter bus vendors. The sample reviewed included 477
invoices totaling $2.1 million, which resulted in the overbilling of 180 invoices by the 167,000. To further break it down, it included 127,000 in incorrect hourly rates or premium
rates for specialized events and 40,000 in non-billable items such as fuel search charges and safety compliance fees. This is a breakdown of the sample invoices with the over billings. All right, I'll take over again. So
conclusion number three, we looked at the certificates of insurance for sampled vendors. So during fiscal year 2025, there was 20 vendors who were actively approved under this contract at the time. And we received the certificates of
insurance from the purchasing department in June of 2025 along with a spreadsheet of their active insurance or if they're expired. And on that spreadsheet, there was three vendors that were stated to be expired and two vendors who had no
certificate of insurance on file. Of the five identified vendors on that spreadsheet, four of them were providing services without proof of active insurance. And then the table below just goes over when their expiration was stated and how many schools and times
they were used past that expiration date. In addition to that, we also reviewed the complete COI history of 10 sampled charter bus vendors that were maintained by purchasing. And of the 10, eight of them did not have the complete required
proof of insurance. So the contract states they need to have general, auto, and work comp liabilities at a certain threshold. And then this table just illustrates all the different exceptions we noted for the vendors. And then three of the five previously stated were also
included in this sample. Additionally, the contract states that there needs to for the additional insured party, it should be the school board of Palm Beach County. So, there was seven vendors that incorrectly stated either the school district or
school of Palm Beach County. So, just as a requirement, it needs to state the school board. And then I'll let Stephanie take the rest of it. Thanks. >> Sorry. The audit revealed non-compliances with contract payment terms. Seven vendors indicated they
participated in the early contract early payment discount. Through our review, we identified 61 sample invoices that met the early payment terms. However, only two invoices included the discount. 1500 in early payment term discounts were
neither disclosed on the invoice nor provided to the schools for the remaining 59 eligible invoices. And in the contract section U payment and payment terms, it states payment will be made after the good or services have been received or completed. We
found 13 invoices that were paid early because the invoice stated the final payment was due before the date of service. Our next conclusion determined that the contract's terms and conditions need improvement and clarification. There are inconsistencies with the
pricing provisions in section CC of the contract and the bid summary document that contradict how to calculate the total cost for trips greater than 5 hours. Also, the contract did not have pricing provisions for one-way trip services.
Through our review, we identified eight invoices that included 13 one-way trip services. We calculated the rates by using the vendor's hourly rate and the ma mileage rate and used the higher of the two for estimated costs. Based on
that, the six invoices were higher than the estimated one-way trip prices by $16,000 when calculating service beginning at the school and ending at the field trip destination. or an estimated higher price of $6,000 for
roundtrip prices that were calculated by service beginning at the school traveling to the field trip and service ending at the v vendor's bus depot. Additionally, two invoices were higher than the estimated one-way price by $7,000 when calculated with the service
beginning at the school and ending at the field trip destination. We were unable to determine the billing accuracy for 34 invoices due to the lack of information. We noted the contract did not require invoices to include relevant details such as service start
and end time, starting and ending locations, total number of hours or miles build, and the hourly or mileage rate used for billing. After reviewing the contract, we noted there are no provisions for governing the access, use, and retention of onbus
video recordings. During the audit, a principal indicated that during a school police investigation of a December 2023 field trip incident, the school was informed that the charter bus was equipped with an onboard video surveillance system, which was automatically activated when
the bus was in operation. However, the contract did not have provisions related to the access, use, and retention of the onboard video recordings. Our last conclusion is regarding the use of non-bid awarded charter bus vendors. Between fiscal year 2022 and 2025, 13
schools procured charter bus services from 14 bid non-bid awarded vendors for 21 field trips. Schoolboard policy 6.14 states in part that the department heads, directors, and principles shall use bid awarded vendors approved by the board where
available unless otherwise approved by the director of purchasing. According to purchasing, there was no written procedures or guidelines to obtain purchasing's approval. And we were unable to determine if the non-bid awarded vendors abided by the Florida state statutes that require
non-instructional contractional personnel, including vendors, to complete a level two background check, as the schools maintain no record of the charter bus having a school police issued contractor ID badge. nor did the schools maintain records of the vendor's proof of insurance to determine if the
coverage was adequate. >> Thank you for your time and if that concludes my pre presentation. I hope if you if you guys have any questions. >> Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the non uh the uh you said
there were 20 um of the 20 drivers 18 at that one school 20 drivers 18 of them didn't have an ID did they not have their ID with them or the none of those 18 people were were approved by school police screened by school police in advance
it is a combination because when we asked them do they have it majority of them said they were unaware of this requirement or others would say oh I have it it's just not with me. So there's no verification of if they have it or not the requirement they need to be screened and have it presently with
them. So of that 18 it's both. >> So madam IG can we get a can we get an idea? I mean it's one thing not to have it forgot it left it at home. It's another thing to never have gone through the screening process and have a busload of kids sitting behind these people. So
is there some way you can come back to audit and tell us? >> Right. One of the that was one of the questions that we had was you know you know were they actually had they been background screened and part of the problem is is that the depending on the name that the bus drivers gave it
doesn't always correlate to what the how to run them through background screening especially have a very common name uh we almost need social security numbers um or some type of an ID to back that up and we really don't have the ability to you know as we're doing audit to go out
there to a vendor and say, "We need to see your social security card." So, that was the problem with trying to verify if those people actually did had been background screened or not. Um, because of the names and there's so many, you know, variables in that. Um, so we
really don't know. >> So, how does how does that get fixed? Well, that, you know, I would, you know, encourage that, you know, nobody allows their children to go on a bus that doesn't where the bus driver doesn't have a state issued or a district issued
ID card with them as a driver. >> The problem is the parents aren't there. So, >> no, no, that that the teachers, the the chaperones, the sponsor of the activity, um, whoever is there to make sure that the bus is okay, that it's, you know, not falling apart. Um, I would think that would be one of the one of the
things you check to make sure is that that person has an ID. Um, that they are, you know, able to drive, that, you know, they've passed all that, that the bus is good and everything else. That should be one of the first things I would check before I'd let anybody drive my kids. >> Okay. One other question. Um I think
slide 20, slide 19 um indicated that um the policy says vendors approved by the school board or designate where available. I don't think unless otherwise approved by the district are purchasing modifies where available. So is where available it's the principal
just says I'm sorry we couldn't uh we couldn't find a a bid a bid awarded vendor so we just chose somebody else and they would not have to go then to the director of purchasing. Is that what that says? >> I I don't believe that is the
interpretation. It says that you have to you still have to go you say that there isn't any available. I believe that they would have to go to purchasing and say we don't we couldn't find one. This is what you want to do. Is that correct, Mr. Fredericks? >> Correct. But I'm sure there there are
instances where say the bus breaks down and they need to have another ride to come back home. They're going to be emergency situations that potentially could come up. But it is intended that they get the the director of purchasing's approval. But I believe that that's why that exception for those rare instances where it's an emergency
and and the students still need to be transported. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. the um understanding Mr. Various question, but I I I think we Is there anyone available in this
conversation at this time that could answer how that could be done regarding because I have many more questions, but from the ID perspective, I don't think that I think it's more of a contractual
issue um more than just when the bus arriving at the driver having an ID. there because I did get an opportunity to read Miss Frederick's um response and where a lot of corrections are being made going forward and that management
concurs with some things. However, that instance and not to belabor it and beat it up, but there must be an answer to how that could get corrected even if it's going in the future bids. But there there has
to be an answer to that before we're able to just move on and say, "Okay, we're just going to wait until the driver shows up." That there's a procurement issue or or a contractual issue I'm ascertaining in this. So, is there anyone available
online or in the room that could answer how that could get corrected? >> Yes, I I can answer that because procurement reports to me. Um, so that the bid was actually issued in October of 2025. So we do have the new contractual
requirements in place that require having a badge. Uh we've also you know at the recommendation of the IG which was we think a very a good recommendation was we the purchasing department created what's called the
all-in-one um uh charter bus website and it goes through step by step what each of the principles are required to do. Um it provides a training. I presented it to the principles um at the April um
leadership summit that we had um to explain that, you know, they need to check for the badge, you know, prior to it's in the contract and we agree that it should be contractual. It's in there, but we also have to depend on whoever is at the school site is checking that prior to um the the field trip or or
event taking place. Um they added u the requirements for the school school uh the fuel charge sir charges any additional sir charges that they may have. There's a contact person on that website. I know that after I presented it to the principles in April I received
two emails right away saying we received a an invoice that has a full fuel search charge. I was able to forward that to purchasing. They purchasing reached out to the vendor said you're not one of the vendors who's allowed to have a fuel search charge. they then pulled back and and reissued all the invoices. Um, so
it's a website dedicated specifically to charter bus buses and the process that that principles need to follow highlighting all the important points out of the the contract u to to pro to put it in one place to make it easier for the principles to understand their
responsibility. >> Thank you u Miss Fedrics. Also, Mr. SH if I may the in the contract or in the bid are is there built into any punitive you that driver that bus company sending
drivers without IDs or having um not having IDs or is there anything built into where the school board school district is able to do something or go after that um contractor? So with any
vendor who is not complying with the contractual terms, we will exclude them from being an viable vendor going forward. So we would remove them from the pool of vendors that schools are eligible to use. >> Is there anything which is good, but at
the time can we enhance that by saying if you do this or should you do this before you get removed, you're not just removed going forward, you are terminated at this moment. We would also have to be made aware of it as well. And then we'd have to be
able to make alternative arrangements for the students to get to wherever it is they need to go. And as long as there's not a timeline associated with it, that's where it gets difficult. They have a potential game they have to play. Normally that's done with a district yellow bus. The only time it would be
with a charter bus is if there isn't a district yellow bus available. field trips, you know, going up to um Disney World or Universal Studios and, you know, the students getting upset because they pay for the tickets and they're supposed to be there at 8 o'clock in the morning. You know, we had there was one
issue where with the bus they didn't get there till noon and then the students had to, you know, leave and early, you know, as well. And so it's it's also trying to manage and balance that as well, this the student experience. Um but it's making sure that uh that the purchasing department is made aware and
they work immediately with the vendor. You know, in regards to all the overpayments that were identified, a lot of these occurred because they did not go through these are done through internal accounts versus going through the the district um internal control
process and our ERP system um with peopleoft. So, as soon as we became aware of all the overpayments, uh the purchasing uh department and specifically the director of purchasing has met with all the vendors and for those that you know initially said they weren't willing to reimburse, she said,
then you're not going to be a vendor going forward. So, they're either reimbursing the district or they're being put on a repayment plan because some of these charter bus providers are smaller and we want to make sure that, you know, if they are willing to refund uh the district that we're putting them
on a repayment plan. the um the vendors um Miss Michael through the chair. How was this um investigation initiated? Was this just a something we came across and you said we're going to do it or was it a
complaint? How was this initiated? >> This is under the work plan for last year. >> This is under the work plan. Okay. I think we need to put make sure back to Miss Fredericks. This this needs to be on the nothing extra on the district or
the employees or the schools. Dishonest needs to be put back on the vendors themselves to ensure they are maintaining compliance with the contract. Not once the bus arrived to the school and we're having to check it.
They need to know all of their drivers. I don't I don't want to sound like I'm trying to manage the vendors. However, we don't need to get in the business of we're hiring a contractual service. That contractual service need
to just be in compliance or not be in rotation. And and I understand we only have a few bus companies in the area that could do some of the things. We're only we have 23 that complied and we're only using 18 or 19 of them. So
there are some that are not being used according to the uh report. Some type of way the bus companies, the vendors need to know. We're not looking to investigate.
We're not looking to manage you. You just need to be in compliance and not wait until the cycle is over that your contract is going to be terminated or non-renewed, but more of it's going to get terminated immediately if you are not in compliance with what the school
district is asking you. >> And they are aware of that. The procurement department had a meeting with all the vendors and is having um meetings will continue to have meetings throughout the term to ensure to reinforce the requirements within the
bid. >> Okay. And >> and they do understand they will be terminated as a they will as a vendor they'll be disqualified as a vendor um so that other schools are not able to use them. >> Okay. And also um that they had the conversation my last one Mr. share
regarding um certificate of insurance. Isn't certificate of insurance required as part of the bid >> um and the contract um to be submitted and um >> it is it is and to be maintained throughout the term. Um so that is a um
that is a process within the the purchasing department and so they do have an individual who is responsible or the purchasing agent for keeping up with maintaining those documents. We were also looking for whether it would be possible to use an outside vendor to
monitor that and to because it is a lot of additional workload for this the staff. Um although important it's a difficult workload for the staff to do this for all the vendors and the initial company that we were looking at to do that ended up going out of business. So
thankfully we didn't actually contract with them. Uh but we are actively looking to see if that is something that we could outsource um to ensure the staff continue to do it but to also ensure that we continue doing it going forward and that none get missed you know because that's the goals. We want
to make sure we don't we get it when the initial bid um is implemented um and and there are at times where where they because it is a manual process that it could potentially be missed. uh but purchasing added some additional procedures to ensure that would not uh
while we're also actively looking to see whether that this is something we could outsource but it's been very difficult finding um a company that will do it with the volume that we have of vendors. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Miss Branch,
>> thank you. Um can we withhold payment to a vendor if they don't meet the contract? if the IDs aren't correct or they don't have them and if some of the things like if they're late or whatever, can we get a discount and not have to pay the whole invoice?
>> Yes. As soon as we're were made aware, a lot of these payments were made directly through internal accounts and not through the district. And so once we were made aware, for example, with the uh the the TVs that were not working, uh the purchasing director went directly to
the vendor and we were able to get an a discount. Uh so as soon as we're made aware uh we actively work with the vendor in order to get the appropriate um discounts if the payment has already been made. >> Okay, great. Thank you.
>> Go ahead. >> And I want to point out that that the the way that the contracts are written for those people that may not know there's a bid document and then there's the the the response. and that the combination between those two, the
solicitation, the response is what makes the contract. So, it's not very it's not easy always to understand that each one of the different vendors may have some different terms. So, a principal trying to decide which one to use and which one has this charge versus that charge would
be very difficult. So Miss Frederick's by putting that all together now the principles can take a look at the different vendors and look at and which terms are more you know conducive and and you know that they can use because they got limited money especially in the internal funds and this way it it it
makes it much easier much more user friendly for the principles so they don't have to try to figure out you know solicitation versus bid response to to district policies and and that could be very cumbersome um so I really credit the the Miss Rick's office for doing that. I think it's going to be a great
benefit for the principles and really take an ease off of their their their load. >> Yeah, it's unfortunately not something that you can access because it's on our internal what we call hub website. Uh but purchasing really went above and beyond doing videos, links, having all
the documentation that you know right at their fingertips so that the the principles don't have to go through each one to determine you know what are they supposed to do what are the requirements and then if there's an issue who do you reach out to so I have to give um Miss
Garbacy is is um online but her department did an amazing job with that that website. Heather, I have a question. If you refer to page eight uh pertaining to additional insured, it says that uh that this school board was
not named as additional is it the school board or the school district >> and this was a change I I believe from legal that we had to make sure to use school board. Um so as those come due and and and we make sure that they do have school board. >> Okay.
>> I have Mr. Chair. Yeah, thank you. Um, when it when we first uh saw this report at our last meeting, it was very concerning. And what this shows prior to what you're delivering prior to this is a complete
breakdown of internal control both on the operational side and on the financial side. These results are very mind I mean they're we have to take this really seriously because this reflects the control that we have for the kids on
the bus which here was very lacking total lacking I don't know where it it rests the lacking part of it whether it's an internal control issue funds internal funds which I understand some go through
purchasing department whoever's running that whole department uh with the security aspect. I'm I'm I'm globally speaking. I'm not going to attack any numbers or ask questions about it, but I think the internal
control that was lacking prior to this report, I hope we don't have these types of lacking of internal controls in other parts of the organization here. Uh this is really concerning to me. hopefully what you've been entered into since
October, I think you said, with educating people, but I don't know if that addresses everything. So, if I was making policy at at the board level, I would completely revamp the procedures on and not put band-aids on this thing. This
needs a complete I don't know the automation part of this is probably I mean, we have systems everywhere. it the internal internal funds doesn't relate to the automation that your other system has right and that other system is live
so you can have reports live from from vendors and things I just the whole thing should be total it's my recommendation I don't know where it can go but just for the record um this is this is a a really good
example of lack of internal control on operational and financial systems here in the school district. That's all I have to say. >> Mr. Barbie, >> following up on the on the security, I understand what Miss Dixon's saying. The
money here is is less concerning to me than the fact that we had people with our children that weren't screened ahead of time. So perhaps the board should should put a policy in place that there's got to be a list of drivers with
that bus. And I I know that'll change, but a list of drivers that have are already cleared so that the principal knows that one of those drivers has to be the one that shows up at the school because I recognize that if kids are already to go and the driver shows up
without a badge, it's either disappointing the kids and wasting all the money that we we got tickets for or whatever. So, there's got to be some way to prove the drivers in advance rather than putting it on the principal when the person shows up to say, "Where's your badge?" and you know, are you
approved? Let me ask you, M. Frederick's, if the principal called school police, would they be able to check quickly to see if the person that's standing there picking up the kids has been cleared? >> I would have to I I would have to check with school police on that. But I but I
also do want to mention that the students aren't going to be on the bus alone, you know, they are going to have a district personnel or chaperone on the bus that is there, you know. So, so yes, the priority is ensuring that every
driver is background checked, but the students wouldn't be alone with the driver. There would be somebody from the district. >> I understand. But when the kids get off the bus, if they're going to spend the day somewhere, the bus driver's there, too. if he sees one of the kids on the bus that he's interested in, you know,
just things that go through your mind. But the bus driver's there with the kids when they're getting off, unless the bus driver leaves, but if he's going to stay and wait for them, then he's there with the kids and the the chaperones can't watch everything. So, I I'm just concerned that we have these people. I
mean, we could have a pedophile that's on the bus. >> Well, Miss Garvery, she she is chatting me. Um and she's and she can also she can also you know she can take off herself off mute as well. Uh but purchasing is now obtaining a list of drivers from the new bid awarded vendors
and it is available on a goo doc um who has been background checked. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Further comments questions. >> I have two more. Um Mr. chair regarding the invoice processing procedures um for
you know just to speak understanding the security is all important um then that's all where I am however I do want to understand how do we get beyond the point of the overpayment during this invoice processing
um going forward how is that >> so that we had purchasing had the meeting and continues to have meetings on an ongoing basis uh with the vendors as to what the payment um requirements are um including what they have to do
for a fuel search charge because in we know fuel has gone up but they have to they have to follow a process. They can't just increase the invoice. They have to submit something to the purchasing department. They have to review it to ensure that they actually did have an increase in in fuel. Um so
there are different processes when there is a additional search charge. Um there are they are allowed to to tip. The schools are allowed to tip but they that should not be included. It's it's voluntary. And what some of the vendors were doing is they were including it on
the invoice as a separate line item. You know, just like when you're going through the the process now, even sometimes it seems like at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts, they they wanted, you know, there's the option to click a a tip. You might not even think about it when you're doing it. Um but that has to be voluntary. So, they're told that they
have to take that off the invoice or the invoice could be short paid. So, we're working with that's also on the all-in-one website. If it's not working through and going through the Peopleoft process and it it does get over overbuild and the principal realizes
that afterwards, the procurement director will work directly with the vendors to get a discount. and we've never had any issue uh with the vendor uh once they've been contacted um to provide a discount back to the school. >> Also, last question for real, the in the
bid um are we doing bids just for the vendors or their dollar amounts in the bid as well? So what type of procurement tool is being used in order to solicit the vendors
>> in terms of what their hourly rate would be? I mean that is included in the bid documents. >> Fuel charges not in the bid documents but the hourly rate is and that's how they're selected based on >> you don't necessarily know what the fuel increase would be. you know, we would
not have Yeah, we would not have, you know, thought forward to to know what the cost of fuel is is now. So, they have to pro provide evidence showing that they've actually paid, you know, the the price differential and and what that fuel increase in fuel would be. So,
there is supporting documentation that has to be provided to the the procurement department before they're allowed uh to issue any additional um increases. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Anything else? If not, I'll accept a motion.
>> I have one more question for the audit of the internal funds. >> Um, some of these expenses in here that we're talking about were paid through the internal funds. Is that correct?
>> Correct. The majority of them are paid with internal funds. >> Oh, the majority of them. Yes. >> Okay. This is interesting. Uh we've done you do an annual audit of the internal funds every year. >> Yes. >> This has never come up before.
>> Uh those because uh uh we just cited it uh in the individual schools internal funds are findings but now because uh we are doing this as a separate audit. >> I understand this is >> so therefore when we found it we also reported in here too.
>> So the other overpayments we also >> let me restate my question. I don't think I said it correctly. Um, in the annual internal fund audits that we do for every school every year.
>> Yes. >> Okay. Some of those expenses paid from these funds are relative to this report. Is that correct? >> Some yes, some no. >> Okay. Okay. But you know during the the internal funds audit the auditor may not
have enough time to go through all the contracts. We look at the supporting document for the dispersement part but not to really verify every single items on each of the invoices. >> I think yeah I want to let me drill down
a little bit. sampling. Sampling in the internal fund audit whatever that means to you guys do the sampling. These buses never came up as a item to look at.
Like I said, uh when we do the assembling, we look at the actual supporting documents whether they have a sufficient document to prove and then to support the payments. For this one, because the uh the auditors start doing the uh school bus uh this contract, they
identify the problem. So they share the information with all the other auditors that here are the bit uh summary for these invoices. If somehow if uh based on your random samples that included a
payments to you know related to this uh uh child contract please also look at the details whether they are complying with the contract terms or not. >> I got it. So they're coming in from a contract basis audit. >> Correct. >> Number one. That's your that's your
answer, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm going back on the internal fund audit. What exactly do you look at then? Like I said, it's basically more on the supporting document and then the payment process, but like I said, you know, there like uh
Miss Fedric said, there's a tons of contracts the district has. So the auditor may not have enough time to every time when you look at a a payment to go back and then to search the contract and read the entire contract terms to determine if the payment is
actually you know comply with all the contract terms because the time is very limited. We have our >> I understand the scope I understand scope of an examination. I understand that. So when they're what what they're doing that they are looking at the
invoice and the invoices are being paid and the dispersement the problem is is that the invoices don't match the contract. We don't have the with the amount of schools that we do because there's so many different contracts. Each one has a different amount. >> Got it. >> We just we're not able to do that correlation.
>> Can I make an a suggestion for the internal fund audit next year based on this report? I think if you see payments in this section of expenses, you drill down a
little bit deeper. >> That's a suggestion. >> We can do that. >> I think you got to drill a little deeper. >> I know sampling. I did all that. I just think that's a good place to follow up on this issue. That's that's all my
thought. >> And well, if if I could if I could mention on on behalf of Mr. law. I know a lot of what they do when they're going out and doing the audits. If something looks odd, like I believe this one might have come up where the tip, like I said, was just automatically included on the
invoice. So, an auditor happens to see that they paid the right amount on the invoice, but they use that in order to to then say, well, now we're going to do a deeper do audit on the contracted services, and that's why it was added to the plan. So they use a lot of there as
a separate independent audit of just looking at the contracted transportation. So they use the work as part of what they're doing for the the regular internal accounts to identify what doesn't look right and then they'll do a whole audit on that specifically to
see whether it's a a systemic issue versus just something that might have happened at that particular school. you know, that's why they did, you know, such a deep dive within afterchool several years ago because they were seeing some inconsistencies when they were doing their internal audits. Um,
and then they did some deep dives and whole audits on after school and there were Mr. Barbieri probably remembers this. So there were, you know, back in the day there were significant um, you know, control issues with the afterchool program. you know, then after the um the
the deep dives and internal audits that based on just internal audits during their their regular school audits, just little things that they found that said, I don't know if this looks right. From there, they expanded it and then that's where, you know, we made significant improvements where we don't even have
issues anymore with after school. So, we really appreciate that they're going out to every school every year sampling because that is where they find this might be an issue and then they add it to the audit plan. Um, and then we see is it something that was just unique at
that school or do we have a systemic problem that we need to address and and this is one where it definitely was a systemic problem and is and the audit department is so good at communicating during the process so we don't have to wait until the audit report is complete
that we can go and make changes immediately even before the report is released. I just want to add one more things uh about Miss Fedric said and uh Miss Michael mentioned about the work plan when we develop web plan every year that's part of our work to look at all
the other audit findings we identified in the past several years not just one year internal fund is one and then all the other areas and also any investigative reports that they have identified a certain areas if it's common common uh uh problems we will
include it into our next year work plan to see if we can do more to look into that like Miss Fry mentioned about the after school program is one uh another one is like uh uh uh background screening that we did it several years ago that's another one when we look at
the you know do the school internal funds audit we identified not part of the internal funds audit but during the observation we found that some volunteers came in may not completely go through the uh raptor and the other things so that's why we look into it
more details as a separate audit rather than to do it you know during the internal funds audit and then we also uh uh solicit you know inputs from like a m man uh Mrs. Michael mentioned from you uh from the other committee other uh you
know senior management to see if they have any areas of concern that they may think that there might be a problem or areas for improvement then we will include it in our work plan too. So a Mr. Chair, so an internal fund
review could possibly trigger a work plan audit. Is that is that a simple >> Oh yes. The the the I think the advantage and I've had this discussion with the other school district internal auditors who only sample they only do
maybe half of the schools in their district. They don't go out every year. Um, we use that the fact that we're out at every school because we find different things that are even unrelated to the internal funds that also feed investigations, feeds procurement, and
we use that as one of our kind of risk assessment. Um, having somebody out there and eyes and ears and, you know, principles, teachers will come up to the auditors and say, "Oh, by the way, I saw this. I got a question about this." And it's it's a great way to to get people
to communicate. And it's one of the best tools that we have. And the good thing about having an IG um besides my sparkling personality is that we, you know, audit and procurement and investigations work all together and they feed each other
>> and and I understand Mr. Dixon's um concern because if if we're going after and and and correct me if I'm misspeaking for you. If we're going after the vendors or we are looking into
the vendors yet we are doing internal fund audits annually it tells it could give the illusion that we're missing something because we did an internal fund internal fund a 22 23
24 this didn't rise to the occasion yet here it is now 22 23 24 with all of these um overbuildings and these sampling, you know, these numbers. So, I
understood what Mr. Dixon was asking because if we're looking at internal funds, yet then we d we dig deeper into something and now it shows it could give the appearance that we're missing something from the audit committee and
the IG's office. So, >> I agree. >> I agree. Anytime I see anything either on the newspaper, any issue, the first thing that I do is what did we miss? Did we miss something? Is this something that's been going on for years and how
come we didn't pick up on it? Um, so we we are constantly revising, reooking at different things. I think this one is is so difficult um because you have every vendor has different terms and that makes things very hard for the
the auditors to even look at an invoice and go this is bad. >> I'm sorry Miss Michael and that's an issue for me. If we are hiring >> as a school district there shouldn't be different terms. The vendors need to comply with our terms. So, I've heard
that stated in the in in this room today. Every vendor has a different term. Oh, this is different. No, you if you're going to build a road in in the city of South Bay, you're going to build that road to the city standards. I don't care how you plan on doing it, but you have to meet the standards of the city. The vendors need to meet the standards
of the school district, not us just falling into their arms. Understanding this is a huge business. I'm not missing any of that. But if we're setting the standards and we are the um the contract, we are the
one who's holding the contract, they need to fall in love with us and not just us fall in love with them. >> When I and be clear about the terms, I mean like they may have different pricing. >> They may have different fuel charges that you so you may have one that goes
that the fuel charge is this or there is no fuel charge, but another one has a fuel charge. So unless you know what that that their response was, you may not realize that they are over billing or they're billing for something that's not included. And I where when you have
one blanket contract where the terms are consistent, you get paid this amount an hour, this amount of mileage, this amount all the way through, it's very easy to audit. But when each vendor um has different pricing um that makes it
that's what makes it hard to distinguish when you have an anomaly. >> No, that's just what I wanted to clarify too that all the terms are the same. It's the pricing that would vary between the different vendors. >> I'm sorry if I >> Yeah, for the charter bus audit also
just an example of the fuel charge. I believe there maybe only two or three of the vendors the prices include the share charge that they allowed it to you know charge us for the fuel share charge but all the rest they are not allowed it. So again when you look at the invoices from
different uh vendors it is difficult for us to determine whether this fuel share charge is inappropriate or not appropriate because it depends on individual uh vendors submitted a bit. I hate to beat a dead horse here, but I don't understand why we don't have a
standard contract. It's either few charges are included that are not included. Why don't we just have a standard contract? And this, if you don't like our contract, then don't bid. Don't we do that with other contracts? We say, "Here's the contract. Here's your here's your requirements to be able to bid. You have to have three out of
five other companies that you've done this work for in Palm Beach County." Well, this contract says you can't do this and you can't do that. Why can't we have a standard contract so the principles don't have to deal with trying to negotiate terms based on, well, I called this I called this bus company and they're going to charge me
this and this bus company's going to charge me that. Shouldn't it just be a standard contract? >> In certain cases, we need to have a pool of vendors so that we can meet the demand of the district. And so because of that, there were there would be vendors that wouldn't bid if they're not
able to get the pricing. And so that's the issue is that we need to be able to have enough vendors to meet the need of the schools. And so this is it's issued to a pool of vendors and then from there then the principal has the ability that you know they they might pick the lowest
price vendor but then that vendor is not available because they're already um doing a ride or already have a ride planned for another school. They still need to get to where they need to go and that other vendor might not have even bid um if we had a a a lower price. Mr.
Fredericks, can't we just issue a bid, whatever it's called, and see how many we get that are willing to take our contract? If we only get three companies and we need 20, then obviously we got to change something so we get more people that are willing to bid on it. But we don't know if there would be a shortage,
you know, and it seems like all these problems be could be handled if we did have a standard contract. So perhaps we should go out to bid, meet these requirements, how many companies are willing to bid on it, and that way we know if we have a big enough pool of companies that, you know, can that uh
that that the schools can use. I I just it's just going to be so complicated to drill down on every one of these every time you find one and say, "Well, this company charged for mileage. This one just charges for extra fuel." It's like that's crazy to have. That's why we did we did add that to the all-in-one site
so that it's very easy for the principles to see what the actual pricing is for each of the vendors. >> And and it is a very extens extensive process to go through an RFP and it it
is very timely. I it's a timeconsuming process as well. So to to have to reissue, you know, to do a no bid and then to go and reissue, you're starting the clock again. Um, you know, I don't know if legal could speak to that. Legal is the purchasing department works very
closely with the legal department. The legal department is is reviewing all the terms within the contracts, but going through an RFP, I mean, it's it's a timeconsuming process. >> I have one last comment. I know we're
moving through the time here. Um, Darcy >> Garvisy >> Darcy reports to you. She does and she is online too. >> Okay. And she's the director of purchasing. >> Yes, she is. >> Okay. Is it possible to to have her
>> uh comment on a suggestion to try to streamline this a little bit more? >> Yeah, she she can definitely speak. They they really have the amount of volume. I I don't I don't think the I don't know >> committee can um really understand the
amount of volume that the that goes through the procurement department with the RFPs, the ITNs and the legal process that that goes along. They have a very efficient and smooth running um machine running in the procurement department. U
but I'll I'll let uh Miss Garvisy speak to that. Well, why and I appreciate the comments today and I and I I take very everything very serious. When this audit came out, we had already put a new bid in place and we wanted to make sure that we did
course corrections, but you have to understand that with a lot of these transportation companies, we do allow amendments now in our bids to accommodate for rising prices. We've had to do this in our trades bids uh in in
this particular bid because we don't want vendors not bidding on contracts and we've worked very closely with legal. This came about during um COVID because we were being impacted with different increases. So that's why we've
tried to take the course corrections um in the past bid but also allow for some flexibility if we do have to um deal with fuel search charges. We just can't not be able to provide our schools with
the appropriate transportation. I mean, we can't dictate you must do this because they won't bid and we do need a plethora whether it's supporting the schools on field trips, whether it's athletic events. Um, this is a very
highly used contract and we wanted to make sure that we made it easy for our principles. We provide training. We've updated the all-in-one uh need a charter bus. We have a purchasing agent that's dedicated to charter buses. We've
established a Google doc and post award meetings and frequent meetings with the bid awarded vendors to try to ensure that we get our hands around this and keep an eye on this particular commodity. It benefits our schools if we've got oversight. Many of the vendors
don't particularly like it, but many of them are very grateful that um we're interacting with them. And I I think it's, you know, it's it's yielding good success with the purchasing department and this particular commodity.
>> I I just just a real quick com real quick. I I I don't think our issue really is the pricing part of the my issue is not the pricing. Ma's mine is more security and some of the issues here with personnel and cameras not working and things like that. I don't
know maybe you could enhance the process a little bit more to to eliminate that because the kids are the most important thing. I don't care if it's 10,000 or 20,000 for a bus that doesn't matter. The children are the key here and that was my concern when I read this report. That's all. Thank you. I won't
interrupt. >> And we have one more uh question and then we're going to move on. Miss Costalano. Um, I just wanted to make a comment um along the lines of what Darcy was saying as well. You know, we do have to remember that our our kids need to go
places and in many cases, you know, we're trying to secure buses for say Grad Bash when every other school across the state is trying to do that as well. And I understand sometimes somebody doesn't have a badge, but that doesn't
mean they're not cleared. they might have just forgotten their badge. We do we deal with that on a daily basis. So, I do think that we can maybe put a system in place where we can check that. Also, similar to what Miss Frederick said, I can assure you um on our buses
that go, it's one chaperone for every 10 kids. So, the bus driver may be there, but there's going to be another adult at the front. There's going to be adults, you know, space throughout the bus. And this is these are high school kids that
are on this bus and we do have supervision uh for them as well. I just think that we also need to keep in mind that sometimes these buses break down and other buses kids are you know someone has to send another bus to you
know get these kids where they need to go. But I think that, you know, as we talk about these bids and making them this way, I don't want to be in a situation where I got to tell a senior family that we can't go to Grad Bash, which is the one event they wanted to go to all year because we can't get buses
because none of them are on a bid or they're not acceptable. Yes, I want everything to be safe. I understand all of that. But I think that similar to when we have to get restrooms for something, you know, if these guys are the only guys in town, sometimes they're
allowed to charge money. But if I'm able to look at that and say, "Okay, here's what our decision is. Do we pay more money so that the kids can go on this important trip for senior grad bash?" Then sometimes I got to say, "Yeah, we got to pay some more money um to be able
to go and make sure that the kids get to have those events." So there's only so many buses in the state and sometimes when you're doing these events, everybody needs them at the same time. >> Thank you. Okay, I'll accept a motion to approve this audit as presented.
>> Second >> discussion. All in favor? >> All opposed? Passes unanimously. Uh Alex and Stephanie, good job. Thank you so much. >> Excellent job. Okay. Next, we have the fiveyear trends in the school internal funds audit the
years uh 2021 to 2025. Miss Michael. >> All right. I listen to the the questions and concerns from the last um audit committee and this is a different presentation. All right. And if you notice there is a
spreadsheet that I gave you all that is quite large. Um Um >> all right and that spreadsheet what I did was one of the the the questions and I also went through all the comments um
was that you know why are we doing this um you know that um you know we did just you know that we need to look at some of the procedures so forth and I I completely agree that's why you do a trend that spreadsheet that that I've handed out is a combination
of all of the audits and investigations and reviews that have been done during that five-year trend. Because when you are looking at the internal funds audits, if we have an issue that is a major issue that that we come across
during the internal funds audit, we will bifurcate that into a separate audit or an investigation. So it may not show up in the internal funds overview, but we do find issues. So that's why I included
all of the different audits that happened during that time period as well as investigations. The information on that spreadsheet also is those are investigations that are substantiated and are related to financial um findings and also the audits are also
related to those things that are found in the internal funds audit. So, and it it's correlated back and and I've added where there's money, there's a section there that does, you know, if there's finance, if it's operational, if there's safety, because I was one of the
things that you everybody wanted to know which area was it covering, it has that for every audit investigation. I've also correlated it back if there is a internal funds standard that they're looking at and if there's been a repeat finding of that in the past.
All right. So it it try to tie everything together. Um, one of the the things I want to point out um that you know there's a lot of um emphasis on when something doesn't happen um or there's an issue we we have
training and I completely agree training is excellent and whenever we do an investigation one of the first questions we asked was have you attended internal funds training and most of most times they have. Um, now when you ask specific
questions, they can't really answer or they'll give an a response of, you know, I didn't realize that or, you know, a comment of, um, I re, you know, I I should, you know, I want to be able to reconcile a fundraiser when the
fundraiser ends, not at the end of the year. Well, the training says, that's when you're supposed to do it. So, training may not always be the the response. There was also a comment there's no missing money, there's no missing cash. We did not and on our five unannounced cash counts, we did not find
any missing money. However, during that time period, we have had issues where the documentation is so either lacking or completely absent, we can't tell you if there's missing money. Um you have comments about you know that
that you know the forms are are too much and there's just it's a red tape and and all that you know we need things automated. I agree. Um I am one of the few IG offices that has their audit unit that is still on paper. Everybody else
has audit software but in this budget crisis I can't go to Miss Fredericks and say I want $40,000 for audit software when she's trying to keep everybody employed. I can ask. She'll laugh at me, but you know, um, so I agree. I would
love to have things automated. There's there's more to to issues than just blaming the process. And, you know, there's also was comments that um, auditors always have to find something. We had 14 schools that did not have any
findings last year and four of them were were high schools. So we really do try to do the best job possible and all of our auditors follow a audit plan an audit program which each step is specific. They also allowed it a certain
amount of time for each audit. So they don't have time to go and you know go on witch hunts and and look through every box. But if they do find an issue they talk to the supervisor and then we address that and may dig further. Um, so I just want to address those comments
before we start into the presentation. All right. If you see in the here that for 2021 to 2025, we had over 3,000 findings. We had 153% increase. Of those, we had 49 substantiated OIG financial findings.
Um, of those findings, 71 of them, 71% of those relate back to internal funds, an issue that was identified in the internal funds. And of those, um, 40 of them have repeat findings. So, essentially, you know, internal
funds serves as we've said, you know, with the the school bus charter is a good indicator that there could be additional issues. um it it gives us an idea of where we need to go and what we need to look at. That's why you want to look at five years. Uh we want to make sure that we
don't just have an anomaly of a treasurer who hasn't done, you know, that was brand new or an auditor that had a really bad day or whatever the the issue may be. So that's why we look at five years. I want to make sure that we're getting a good picture. And again, repeat findings may indicate
that the whatever corrective actions are being done are not not sustained or not effective. All right. The purpose of today is for us to to get the trend information and risk factors uh report and highlight on the reoccurring and to give management the
ability to understand what's going on systemically and they make the decision. The IG's office cannot be the one that decides what is the issue. You know, is it more training? Is it corrective actions? Is it we need to just accept the risk on this? Whatever it may be,
that's management's decision. Um, that is not something we can do as part of the IG's office and still remain independent. And again, just because you have a finding does not mean that that school or that principal or that treasurer, you know, is bad. There there
you're going to have mistakes. You're going to have issues. That happens. We all do. And you can't we don't automatically correlate the two. And again here you could see that we have had increase in findings and some of these findings you know over cash
deposits fundraising purchasing. Um it's not necessarily that that there's an increase but are we doing anything to address the increase or is it are we setting the bar too high on some areas and or maybe the process is just too arduous for um the schools to do.
whatever it may be, those are different things that this should give us our management the idea of how they want to move forward. And I want to reiterate, there's a complete listing and I'll I'll have it available for anybody if they want it of each one of the um issues
that we look at or the standards and now one of those standards the governance is says that I came up with it. Each one is the department of education, it's the school district, it's the board, it's USDOE. We don't come up with the rules.
We just report on whether or not we see that the rules are being followed. When you look at the substantiated findings, 39 of the 49 substantiated findings um were of investigations. 10 of them were audits or reviews.
Right? So if you if you look overall um again those were just the substantiated findings. I didn't include those investigations where we did not have substantiated findings. Um, these are just the ones that were substantiated. We do have quite a bit.
Out of those findings, 35 out of the 49 had referenced internal funds. So, of those issues that are identified in audits and investigations, they were also issues that were identified during the internal funds audit.
Um, so you see a 71% indicator on the relationship. So it's showing that the internal funds audits are finding issues and those issues if they're not addressed or you may also have just a bad employee, you may end up with an investigation.
Doesn't mean it's you're always going to end up. It just may mean we have a problem. And if you have a continued repeat findings, then something's not working. And again you we're looking at some of the things that is you know repeat consecutive findings and that's that
that is always a concern because we got to realize why how come we're not able to get it corrected. Um one of the the things I saw pretty consistently on the the different internal funds audits is not doing the inventories
um over and over again not doing inventories. Five years straight we have some schools they've never done the inventories. Not quite sure why, you know, that someone's getting a supplement for that. I I I wonder why they're getting the supplement. You're just doing an inventory. It's it's not like you're dependent on somebody paying
an invoice. So, those are some things that can be addressed. I'm not sure. Maybe it's, you know, I don't know. It's for management to figure out. Is it that they can't do it? They don't want to do it. They don't understand it. I don't know. And then again, reoccurring. So,
documentation of records. This is something that again and I understand that forms are an issue. Um, nobody likes to fill out forms and the government is great for forms and great for rules. There is no form or rule
that's in place that hasn't been put in place because of a problem. Every time they're done is because an issue has been uncovered. I've been doing IG work now. This is my 29th year. And when you talk about PECards,
I have seen PECARD purchases used for everything from porn to paying a parking ticket to buying a full wardrobe for a spouse. And you'd you'd be amazed at at what they what happens and the excuses that
people use for it. So when we see a PCard purchase and there's not documentation that we can directly correlate back to the function that the the entity is is involved in. We have to question it when the IRS I hate using
that word. I don't want to be audited. Um and when when they have an audit and you give receipts for going out to dinner or whatever, you got to show how that's a business related expense. You just can't show the the the auditor a receipt from,
you know, Ruth Chris Steakhouse and say, "Yep, it's workrelated." You got to show, you got to put down who you met with. You got to add some documentation. And that's what we're asking for. And a lot of times we don't get that. A lot of times we get, you'd be surprised some of the responses that we get when we ask
for additional details. Here is the the schools with the the highest findings for the five years. And again, that this doesn't necessarily mean that these this is a bad principal, a bad treasurer. There there could be a lot of different issues that cause a
school to have those findings. Number one, they could they could be going through treasurers every year. That could be a very good problem. they could be doing a lot of fundraising, more fundraising than the other school, which causes which means you have a much better chance of having issues in that
area. Um, so please don't equate findings always with somebody not doing their job. That doesn't necessarily means that just may need they need some extra help. We may need to address how we're handling things. And again now I've I've taken the the
internal funds findings and also added it with the audit findings and investigation findings. And you see here that some of them are matching up. You know we have we have a school that we've had repeat um findings of both investigations and audits um in the same
areas sometimes with the same staff and it continues. So you know what's happening that's that's for management to decide. I don't decide um what responses are. I I did get one um question about that somebody that staff
were being disciplined for not putting down how many tulips were in there and that was my fault. No discipline was is a written directive. I believe Dr. Kelau said that's not discipline. A written directive is not considered discipline. And the IG's office we don't hand out
discipline except to my own staff. So I didn't do that. All right. Internal funds finding again identifies control weaknesses. The repeat findings say the same areas appear again. An audit review finding is
kind of a broader control concern. An investigation finding is just a substantial misconduct and violation. And at the end it's a loss. We have cost. We have scrutiny and we lose public trust. these internal funds findings, we want to make sure that they
do not become investigations. My whole goal, and I've said this over and over again, is I do not want the school district to be in the newspaper for anything but an A-rated school and for reading accolades. Every time I see something that's negative about the school district, the first thing I look
at is what did my office miss? How could we have stopped that? What could we have done to make sure that this didn't happen? I'm fully transparent, but I want to have a positive impact. And that's how you know if you're you're doing a good job as an IG, not just reporting on issues.
And here are some of the consequences by not taking care of we 182,000 a minimum identifiable financial exposure. All right. Um we have records that we just can't tell how many issues if there's a
problem because the records are so poor. People are not putting what they purchase what they purchase it for. um they're not putting down if they if they are selling t-shirts a lot of times they will say that they bought 20 t-shirts and they sold them for varying amounts
and some of them they gave away well as far as I know you could have been charging $50 a t-shirt but you you know to the kids but you're only claiming that you charge $5. I don't know if they're not pocketing $45. I don't know if they're reselling those
t-shirts at the flea market, you know. So, those those records are important. I know they're a problem, but they are important. And many times with the records are so poor or non-existent or incomplete, we can't tell how bad the
losses could be. And in the reports, we do put down and you will see in there that there was incomplete records or no records in that spreadsheet. Now, moving forward, what are the different options we have? Can accept the risk and watch Miss Frederick's head
pop off when I say accept the risk. He's like, "No, I don't know." Uhuh. No. Uh revise policy. All right. Those areas that are within the school board's jurisdiction. All right. There are some things that we can't change because they're DOE or they are USDA, whatever.
This is enhanced training. Maybe that's something because I know that we've had some people that, you know, I don't know if they're paying attention to the training or they're just letting it run because when we ask questions, they come up with I didn't know that. They could also just be saying it to cover themselves. True, but I don't know.
Maybe the corrective actions that were taken, maybe a written directive isn't isn't sufficient. Maybe there there you need more of a consequence. And then this is the part we need to monitor and hold the accountability. All right. But I cannot direct
management how they handle that. All I can do is present the different options. These are just the governing frameworks. I don't need to to revisit that suggested audit committee language. All right. Hopefully it this meets the needs
and answers the questions. Receive the audit committee trend analysis. Um request management provide a status assessment of reoccurring internal funds and o financial f find fun finding categories. You can request management evaluate whether the repeat findings are
acceptable risk, policy gaps, whatever it may be. Request periodic reporting on corrective actions. Now, we do that as part of our when we have audits, investigations, we do follow up on those um and then each year we go back out and do the internal funds again. So, we are
looking at those and consider any reoccurring trends for future risk assessment and ponding. So, which is also something that we do as well. Um, I will say that that that the training um and Christina in our office went through and she looked up everybody's training
that was mentioned in the five-year internal funds and it was quite quite a task. Uh, she spent a couple of days on it because I was pulling my hair out and um there is a ton of training. These principles attend a ton of training. I
don't know if it's if maybe they're not getting the questions answered. Maybe that you know because um like Dr. Castello said, "You know, I don't know why you have to sign this." And I know that from working at Department of Financial Services, there is a rule in in there where you get checks that you
have to have two people in the office whenever you're opening up mail. And we we ended up finding out, yeah, there was two people in the office. They were sitting on opposite sides and facing the wall, opposite walls, because they didn't realize that the reason why there need two people is because they're supposed to be watching each other. So
maybe, you know, they're meeting this, they don't understand the nuance of why you're doing things. Maybe that's something that we need to to explore a little bit more. Um, I don't know. Again, that's that's for management to decide. Um, because I don't I cannot direct how we handle things and move
forward on that conclusion. Recurring internal funds findings may serve as possible indicators of broader control weaknesses. Repeat findings in the same area may suggest that risks are not being fully addressed or corrective actions are not fully effective. Uh
analysis does not establish causation. So just because you have a finding or just because you have an investigation doesn't mean that this one school is bad. I have seen departments agencies who had absolutely no reports at all.
And that and at DJJ that scared me. If they had nothing because you had no kids, no problems. That that worried me that things were being covered up. So the fact that somebody's reporting things I think is great. The fact that they're transparent and want answers, that's great. So don't punish people
because they report things or may have um investigations. It just may mean that we're not doing as much as we can to help them. um the audit committee and school board um should may consider whether risk are accepted whether we need to do some policy work and I need to make sure that I remain as independent because that's
one of the things that that I am charged with that's my main job now that ran through that and >> wow pretty impressive right I only had eight cups of coffee this morning questions >> Terry I've got I've got a comment I
haven't had a chance to totally review this spreadsheet but I want I want to commend you. I mean, this seems to be all-encompassing and I I just thank you. I know this took a heck of a lot of work and uh I I appreciate the transparency. That's one of the things I love about
you and your department. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Questions? >> I have a question. Where does this report? >> Excuse me. Uh where does this report go? >> To the board. >> This goes to the board. Do you present it? um it will be part of the audit the
audit report to the board and it'll be part and they will you know if somebody pulls it off of consent then I would ask questions about it but it's not presented later at workshop but if a board member pulls it then I would discuss it and answer questions. >> Okay. Thank you. >> What's the likelihood um of it being
pulled? >> I you know I I I can't I try to guess what you guys are going to ask and and and and I can't get that one right. So, I can't even uh I don't know. Um I have no idea.
>> Is it a is there a possibility for us um as the audit committee to ensure that it is a not only a consent agenda item, but is actually something presented and reported by the IG during the board
meeting? And if we're not able to do that, is it able to be presented to at the principal meeting so the principles are aware of some of the thing of the occurrences over the past five years. So
that's two questions. >> I we are always always looking to um communicate with the principles um and you know to do a presentation to them on that. I think that would be great. Um, and I think Miss Branches is on the
line. I don't know if it's something that um, she might be able to speak to on whether or not I present this to the board. >> Sure, I can. Um, I I think it's a great idea to present to the board. Um, I know like you said, when it's on consent and
somebody if if you know there's seven of us, so when someone reads it, they have a question, they pull it. So, like you know, she said, Miss Michael said, you don't know if somebody's going to have a question or not because if it's thorough and they don't have any questions, then they're not going to pull it. So, I
don't think there's anything wrong with um presenting it. I can talk to Mr. Burke about it. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Branch. Uh but I I would like to make a motion if make a motion to have this item presented at your at an upcoming
principal meeting. Um Yeah, I don't I don't know how those meetings works, but that at least it's presented to the principles. >> So, at the April leadership summit, um I did present to them at the same time I was presenting the all-in-one site. I
did go over the um findings. I did not go over them. The only ones I went in detail with them on were the new ones. I went I highlighted the insufficient documentations, the ones that have been recurring and then the the new findings that were identified like the contracted
transportation and I'm trying to remember what the um what the second one was but it was ensuring it was something regarding the the background checks. uh went over that um in in detail with the principal group and that is something that I could also do as part of the
leadership summits uh for each we have them on a monthly basis uh and in the beginning of the school year what we also provide the principles is a a draft presentation that they can populate their you know their school name in um
that highlights what the u the recurring issues and themes have been so that when they do their staff meetings because it does come down to their teams um that it gives them an easy template to use to present to their their um their teachers and and sponsors what the requirements
are. And then if if I could speak to just since we did start there was a presentation at the last meeting and there was some fe feedback that was provided and Miss Michaels mentioned it again today that some of these are district policies and could we go back
it was a request um from uh board member branch as well as the principal. could we look at some of our thresholds because they're so low. And we went back, looked at our thresholds. They've been $1,000 for as long as I've been here and I've
been here 19 years. Uh so we went back and also looked at the state guidelines and we aligned a lot of our that thousands because the state had a mandate that we had to capitalize every asset that was over $1,000. the state has increased that threshold
two years ago. Um and so now um we agree that we should increase that $1,000 threshold. We're not going to go all the way up to the 5,000. We're going to go up to 2500. So that would be for the the purchasing cards um as well as the the
the purchase orders that are at the school site. And then in addition to that, as a district, we're going to increase our capitalization threshold to align with the state policy of of 5,000. Most municipalities have already done
that because I mean it's you have to look at it and it's a 5,000 or what's attractive. So, we're still going through the list of what we consider to be attractive, which would be computers, musical instruments, and different things like that. Um, but that's going
to also allow us to reduce the staffing that we had in tracking the assets because we're going to be able to automate a lot more of it. It was actually one of the the department reductions that I made within my division that I'm shifting the the inventory tracking over to the IT
department so that they can now hopefully streamline it. Um and and I eliminated the um the asset field texts and we'll we're now going to be utilizing the ITS and the STSTs at the school sites in order to do the inventories but still maintain the
scanning and the independence but with this the the the budget situation that we're in. We have to also change and look at what we can do that's that's that's more efficient. Um, so we're also looking at there was the the question of
there is a lot of capability within the internal account system that we're not utilizing because we didn't want to put additional work on the principles. Uh, but now we see that they're open and they've always been open. You know, it's, you know, put it on me to say I didn't want to add additional work to
the principles, but they also want to be more efficient as well. Uh so we're working with the vendor uh to put together a summary and of what options are available and then we're going to get a group of principles to come in to get their feedback as to are there different modules within the system
where we could potentially automate the purchase order process. So then you don't have to worry about there's a missing signature because it's all going to be work through workflowed through just like it is in peopleoft but through the internal account system. So there is different functionality. So, we're going to go through that list um with the
principles. We're working on that right now with the vendor as to what additional functionality is available so that we can make it an an easier process. >> Thanks, Miss Frederick. I appreciate that. So, I would make a modification to the motion with the um knowledge Miss Frederick just shared and um just modify
that motion so that the IG can make the presentation to the board. >> Yeah. instead of the principles within the next three months, you're able to get on the um district's calendar to
make this presentation because I I think this information doesn't need to only be a part of a consent item. It needs to be shared verbally so um you know so that the board will understand the things that are taking place at the school
sites as well and and what you're doing in the IG's office. So my motion is just to have this item within the next three months on the district calendar. >> Second discussion. >> All in favor of the motion. >> I
discussion comments. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. I want to apologize to the 68 people. They got an invite to this meeting from me. Um it it is looking at for some reason when I accept an invite
from the IGT office it reinvites everybody and it's happened to me twice and so I made sure today I'm meeting with the IT people were actually already looking at my system my email address and my iPhone to figure out why I'm
renotifying everybody so um I apologize to everybody that I bugged twice I I get a a lot of nice responses I haven't got any nasty response but I got a lot I'll be there. No problem. >> Don't let it happen again. >> One, if I could, Mr. Chairman, it's a
point of personal privilege. Um, I pretty much bragged to everyone in the room, but in case I missed anybody, I want to put this on the record officially. This past week, I got to uh attend my son's um travel baseball tournament up in Coopertown, New York.
And it was uh quite the experience. And so, I just want to um to share with you all this this papa's pride that I have. the uh the team did did pretty well. Um obviously didn't win at all, but um my son in the first round of the playoffs
happened to smash, and I mean absolutely smash. And no doubter, grand slam, home run, and his little brother uh promptly exited the seating area and ran all the way around to center field to collect said grand slam ball. So, I just wanted to say go Colts, go Andy. I'm very proud
of you. And go Zack. You're the best little brother Andy ever had. Thank you guys. Okay. Well, welcome home. >> Okay. Any other comments? If not, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Uh, meeting adjourned. I will just mention though, the next meeting is July
16th. Again, it's on a Thursday, not a Friday. So, thank you all. It's a long meeting, but I think it was very productive. Thank you. And Kristen. Crescent up was nice