Audit turns up fraud at three county schools

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

An audit of 76 Clark County schools found accounting problems at 98 percent of the schools and reported three instances of fraud, an outcome that had district officials vowing this morning to crack down on administrators who handle funds.

The auditor's findings were presented to the Clark County school board this morning as part of the state required annual independent audit of all of the district's finances.

Lynn Vinson, director of internal audit for the school district, said the incidents happened at two high schools and one middle school.

She declined to discuss the specifics of the cases, but said the tally of the three was more than $5,000.

One employee was fired but made full restitution. The district is pursuing possible criminal charges in the other two case, Vinson said. The fraud was uncovered by district staff during the independent audit and turned over to the auditors. The audit looked at 76 of the district's 277 campuses. Since problems were found at nearly all of the audited schools "it is reasonable to assume that almost 98 percent of all district schools would also have findings if audited" the report said.

The auditors, Kafoury, Armstrong and Co., recommended the district involve the five regional superintendents as well as its own internal audit staff in strengthening procedures and assuring compliance by schools.

Some aggressive steps have already been taken and more are likely to be forthcoming, district officials said this morning.

Workshops for administrators are being held districtwide and a new series of checklists and training videos are being prepared. District officials are also considering tying internal audits to administrators' yearly evaluations.

School board member Denise Brodsky said such infractions of basic fiscal policy would never be tolerated in the private sector. Brodsky, executive director of the Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition, said if she failed to properly record her financial transactions in her job she would be fired.

"I can't help but wonder if we need to start handing down some more serious consequences here," Brodsky said.

Walt Rulffes, the district's deputy superintendent of operations, said he is prepared to cut off cash flow to schools that that repeatedly violate procedure.

The auditors said accounting violations at the 76 audited schools included: