I'll put all of her office's press release below the jump, and I've put up the full report here.
The press release and the article give you the jist what what they found and what has subsequently happened. Those of you who follow School Committee closely may remember that we voted a few months ago on a designee to sit on the Collaborative's board; Superintendent Boone now sits on their board. We also saved a million dollars this year in contributions.
Many of the rest of the issues have already been fixed.
There's an item on the upcoming School Committee agenda, requesting that the Collaborative board meet with the Worcester School Committee, which should sort more of this out publicly.
Central Massachusetts Special Education Collaborative Overcharged Member Communities
BOSTON, MA — An
audit of the Central Massachusetts Special Education Collaborative
(CMSEC) issued today by State Auditor Suzanne Bump revealed the
multi-community partnership charged its member school districts fees
that exceeded the actual costs, resulting in a multi-million dollar
surplus.
“The
problems we found at the Central Massachusetts Special Education
Collaborative are typical of those found in past audits of the education
collaborative system,” said Auditor Bump. “Our audits of
collaboratives have provided the basis for meaningful reform. I hope
this audit will continue to assist policy makers in strengthening the
oversight and accountability of Education Collaboratives.”
Today’s
audit shows that CMSEC, an association of Worcester and Webster school
districts that is responsible for providing educational services to
approximately 500 special needs students, was charging its member
communities in excess of the programs’ actual cost, resulting in a
surplus of more than $4.5 million. Guidelines set by both the
Massachusetts Department of Revenue and the Office of the Attorney
General state that fees from a government agency should not exceed the
actual cost of the service provided. Auditor Bump recommended that the
collaborative amend its pricing methodology and establish an appropriate
method to remit surplus funds to its member districts.
The
report also highlighted CMSEC’s failure to properly administer its
retirement benefit program. In 1985, non-teaching Massachusetts
education collaborative employees were prohibited from further
participating in Social Security and instead were required to enroll in
the state’s retirement system. However, the audit found that CMSEC
never transitioned employees from Social Security to the state system
and, as a result, denied some employees the opportunity to receive
thousands in additional annual retirement income.
In
addition, the audit noted deficient internal controls over certain
financial and management activities at CMSEC. For example:
- CMSEC did not have set policies and procedures for the procurement of goods and services. During the period of review, auditors found CMSEC spent $24,000 on procurements without soliciting competitive bids.
- Collaborative employees were not required to submit adequate documentation to justify expenses. In a sample, Auditors found $21,314 in expenses that either lacked any supporting documentation or lacked an identified business purpose.
- Errors made in payroll records led to employees earning $1,630 in unearned sick time.
Last
year Auditor Bump released a series of education collaborative audits
which detailed a pattern of problems across the entire education
collaborative system. She issued those audits along with a set of
recommendations to enhance financial accountability and to improve
oversight of collaboratives by state and local authorities. These
recommendations were the foundation for a major reform legislation
signed into law this year by Governor Deval Patrick.
“I
am pleased to have worked with the Chairs of the legislature’s
Education Committee, Representative Alice Peisch and Senator Sonia Chang
Diaz, to use the result of our past audits of collaboratives to
generate real reform,” said Auditor Bump. “The recently passed reforms
will address findings from this audit. Collaboratives are now required
to follow generally accepted accounting standards and must form new
written agreements with their member communities that set limits on
allowable surpluses.”
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