Feb
23
State Auditor Steve Burrage’s office just released a report on Skiatook Public Schools that should have taxpayers everywhere asking questions of their own school board members and superintendents. According to the report, between May, 2004 and January, 2009:
- The school spent over $800,000.00 for the purchase of custodial supplies from E & E Sales, Inc. instead of buying direct from the actual retailers. The school often paid double, triple or quadruple the open market price for the items ordered from E & E Sales.
- The school paid nearly $60.00 each for trash cans that are available online from a home improvement store for $8.00 each.
- The school paid $612,005 for supplies costing $229,286. The school paid E & E Sales a $382,719 markup over market prices for these supplies.
- The school also paid Austin Security Company over $460,000.00 for security systems during the audit period. Austin Security Company is operated from the same Oklahoma City storefront as E & E Sales, Inc. Instances were noted where the school paid Austin Security prices that were 400% or more above market prices. The school, for example, paid as much as $6,600.00 for a security system from Austin Security that it could have bought direct for $1,312.99.
- Had the school implemented policy and procedures concerning purchasing and receiving, it is likely they would have discovered years ago that they were paying markup amounts of 100% to 500%.
- In fact, had the school simply compared the shipping invoices they were signing to the billing invoices submitted by E & E Sales, they could have easily detected they were paying substantial markup amounts for using E & E as a middleman.
It’s disappointing to see yet another example of a school district misusing tax dollars that are supposed to educate our children. As our Blueprint for Transparency noted last year, Skiatook is one of many districts in the state that does not post their district budgets or audits online for taxpayers to see. This case also shows why it’s important to know that the tax dollars we are currently spending on education are being used properly before the state commits even more funds, as proposed by State Question 744. We commend the offices of the State Auditor and Attorney General for bringing some sunshine to the Skiatook School District’s budget.
Unfortunately, Skiatook may not be an isolated example. Pat McGuigan points out in his story on CapitolBeatOK that five other school districts are going through the investigative audit process: Butner, Broken Arrow, Wagoner, Boynton and Seminole. What happened in Skiatook is further evidence that before the state spends more taxpayer dollars on education, like State Question 744 proposes, Oklahoma first needs to make sure that the money being spent now is done properly and for the benefit of the children.
What can be done to prevent this from happening or at least catch it sooner? We’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s blog post, so stay tuned!
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