| Comptroller investigates LCHS
culinary arts
Jeremy Nash news-herald.net The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has completed an investigation into allegations of malfeasance in the Lenoir City High Schools culinary arts program.
Accounting records, bank statements and supporting documentation for
Feb. 1, 2017-June 30, 2019, were collected and noted deficiencies to
collecting, depositing and disbursing funds by a former culinary
arts instructor. According to the report, the instructor did not
maintain adequate documentation from program activities, and did not
properly remit collections to LCHS. She instead deposited funds into
a personal bank account.
“The instructor provided
investigators her bank statements indicating total Wave and
Square Reader deposits of $2,893.27,” the report said. “Wave and
Square Reader are mobile payment processing devices that allowed
the instructor to use her mobile device for collections, which
she electronically forwarded to her personal bank account. The
instructor advised investigators that she used card readers to
make it easier for anyone to impulse buy whatever items the
program might be selling; e.g., holiday themed cookies. Without
documentation, investigators could not determine if the
instructor remitted all collections to the bookkeeper for
deposit.”
The
instructor made program disbursements from her own bank account
instead of through school purchasing procedures, which need
approval and receipt/invoice prior to issuance of a school
check. Failure to use school procedures, including the tax
exempt status, resulted in payment of at least $124.88 in sales
tax.
The report also notes the
instructor failed to offer supporting documentation for use of
all collections.
“The instructor provided
invoices totaling $2,677.09 for the program expenditures, which
included the account balance of $176.43 remitted to LCHS by the
instructor when school officials requested that she no longer
use her personal account,” the report said. “Therefore,
investigators could not determine if the instructor used the
remaining $216.18 in collections deposited in this personal bank
account for the culinary arts program.”
Investigation revealed the
instructor made at least $244.12 in “questionable program
expenditures.” That includes meal purchases, holiday cards,
insufficient bank funds and other expenditures not provided in
documentation.
“Investigators
question whether these expenditures were used exclusively
for the culinary arts program,” the report said.
Lenoir City Director
of Schools Jeanne Barker said the district reported to the
comptroller once it became aware of the issue in late April
2019. From there, school officials “immediately” met with
the former program director, who Barker said is no longer an
employee of Lenoir City Schools.
Russell Johnson, 9th
Judicial District attorney general, has met with the former
director and her attorney.
“The program director
had resigned and is working in a similar position in another
system,” Johnson said in an email correspondence. “We had
the former director pay the $64 overdraft fee back to LC
Schools and to undergo a training program on school
finances, segregation of accounts and basic accounting for
her present duties. In meeting with the investigative
supervisor from the Comptroller’s Office, there did not
appear to be any criminal intent, it was a failure to
maintain proper documentation on expenditures.
“The school appeared
to authorize the card reader device but did not have a way
to connect it to a school account, so the former director
was using a sub-account within her personal account to try
and maintain segregation but when she over-drafted the
personal account it affected the sub-accounts within the
personal account,” he added.
Johnson said there
will be no prosecution.
|
BACK
8/17/20