Audit Of Howard County Schools Claims Mishandling Of Funds

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- An audit of Howard County Public Schools released by the Maryland General Assembly Department of Legislative Services says the county was found to have several instances mishandling of finances, especially when it came to its contracts for specific services.

The Office of Legislative Audits identified 15 contracts, totaling $12.6 million, that Howard County Public Schools awarded without a competitive bidding process.

The Department of Legislative Services found that contracts were awarded by senior management employees as sole source contracts without sufficient justifications. Many contracts were awarded with little to no competition in the bid.

The investigation was based on records from 2013-2015 school years, with 2014 work papers being most closely referenced.

There were also findings that the certain administrative actions lacked accountability -- including payroll and inventory. It said that the school system lacked evidence to support salaries for 142 administrative employees, totaling more than $15.3 million during 2014, had been approved by the school board.

The statement also cited that Howard County Schools needs to improve security and controls over computer network and information systems. There were also that there were several issues with the school system's inventory of its computer and technology equipment-- with almost 10,000 items added into the system not inventoried. There were also finding that technology equipment lacked safeguard against viruses and malware.

Additionally, there were claims that school employees were receiving payments for mileage that were unsubstantiated, and neither authorized nor approved by the school board.

In response to the audit, Howard County Public School stated "We disagree with the finding and the recommendation."

"We perform ongoing dependent eligibility verifications and have a series of automated controls to prevent improper claims payments," the county responded. "In addition, our third party administrators have certain controls and procedures to ensure that claims are paid properly and accurately. We explored the use of claims payment audits in the past, and based on that experience, do not believe additional claims payment audits would be cost effective," they said.

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