Top school officials in the District are scrambling to find money that will bring order to the chaotic finances of the failing system, Board of Education President Robert Bobb said Wednesday.
The schools have set aside $1 million in the 2008 budget to automate the schools’ finances and set up a system of checks and balances. Bobb said Wednesday he wanted to find money for automation in this year’s budget.
“No system can operate well unless they have financial controls,” Bobb said. “The schools’ finances have to be above reproach.”
The schools and the city finance office have been stung by several financial scandals — ranging from allegations of misappropriation by former charter schools executive Brenda Belton to hundreds of thousands of dollars in overpayments to former employees in the special education office.
Most school systems in the country have already put budgeting software in place. Critics have said for years that the D.C. schools are fostering fraud, waste and abuse by refusing to automate its finances.
Last year, the Department of Education rated D.C.’s schools “high risk” for federal funding because of shoddy accounting.
Bobb said he met with D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi last week and that Gandhi is “on board” with the automation plan.
“The public has to have confidence that the money is being spent wisely,” Bobb said.
Anyone with information on the D.C. Public Schools can call 202-459-4956.
