CULLMAN – During Thursday evening’s Cullman County School Board meeting a representative from the Alabama Examiner’s Office spoke on behalf on the organization, reading off a list of infractions which did not meet certain specified requirements.
A press releases issue on behalf of the CCBOE states:
Our school board members and the Superintendent are committed to being good stewards of financial resources, and the district is on a continuous improvement path to strengthen its governance and business system.
During a recent audit of Cullman County Schools by the State of Alabama Examiner’s Office, several problems were found with the Commission’s internal controls over financial reporting and/or its internal compliance controls.
The findings with Fairview High School were brought to the attention of the Cullman County School Board during November of 2014. At the time the School Board by law was not permitted to fully disclose the commission’s findings. The audit also found noncompliance with the Child Nutrition Program and deficit account balances across several schools.
The Cullman County School Board stated, “Since this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment on any details other than the listed facts. The Cullman County School Board is cooperating fully with the investigation,” read the statement.
The press release explained in Finding 1, which can be found below in its entirety along with the State of Alabama Examiner’s Office report, the multiple findings by the office concerning an adequate system of internal controls to comply with approved policies and procedures was not maintained at Fairview High School.
The following deficiencies were noted:
- Loans obtained without proper authorization from the school board.
- Procedures for reconciling cash receipts from vending machines in the teachers’ lounge were not adequate to determine if all receipts were properly deposited and recorded in the school’s books.
- Teacher receipts were not remitted to the school bookkeeper timely.
- Purchases were made prior to obtaining approved purchase orders.
- Purchases were made that were not recorded in the school’s books.
- Some payments for school expenditures were noted which were paid with cash and were not paid on a timely basis.
- Surplus items purchased under ADECA were not maintained on the school’s inventory and were not physically inventoried each year.
In Finding 2:
The Commission’s approved polices and procedures manual regarding local supplements for salaries of individual employees allows school-related booster or support organizations to pay supplements if approved by the Commission and other specific conditions are satisfied including that such payments are handled properly for payroll.
The release went on to state that supplements were paid by a booster organization at Fairview High School to individual employees without Commission approval and were not properly disbursed through payroll. As a result, these payments were not reported on the employee’s W-2.
The Board neither anyone from Fairview High School commented on the ongoing investigation.
Condensed Report on the Cullman County Commission on Education Cullman County, Alabama – October 1, 2013 Th… by cullmansense
