School district gets approval for anti-fraud plan
The board of trustees of the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) said Monday it has endorsed an action plan and associated budget request in response to recent recommendations made in a report by the province’s auditor general into allegations of fraud.
In September, provincial Auditor General Julia Mullaley released a report of a two-anda-half-year investigation into allegations of fraud within the ranks of the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District.
The investigation found a number of examples of fraud between 2011 and 2016. It included unauthorized vehicles receiving free snow tires, free snowclearing, $735 wheelbarrow rentals, purchases of $3,320 laser levels and much more.
The report outraged school councils and parents in the province.
“The board of trustees takes the auditor general’s report very seriously and we are determined to put the policies, procedures and resources in place to address the recommendations,” board vice-chair Wayne Lee stated in a news release. “There is no quick fix to this — and there’s no solution that doesn’t involve new software, new systems, and the human resources to implement them. We must address the conditions within the school district which allowed fraud to occur.”
The board will submit the action plan and budget request to the provincial government.
A recent board of trustees meeting also saw discussion on grade reconfiguration within the Mobile Central High School system; a new refusal of schools admission policy to align with recent changes to the Schools Act, 1997; a draft annual report to be presented to the provincial government; and a presentation on Deep Learning. Deep Learning puts increased focus on the process of learning, experiential learning, and how students can demonstrate acquired knowledge in ways other than through traditional assessment practices.
A recording of the Nov. 3 board meeting is available online at www.nlesd.ca.
Mullaley said in her report the alleged fraudulent activity came after an investigation of the facilities branch of the NLESD, which employs between 10 and 12 people.
The 62-page report is overflowing with suspicious purchases by the district’s facilities branch.
In one example, buyers for the district approved the purchase of 67 tires, costing $14,214, and three tire installations at $220. The makes and models of the tires purchased did not match any vehicles owned by the NLESD.
“We observed many known indicators of unethical behaviour and possible fraud, including expenditures for goods and services that were not properly authorized or reviewed,” Mullaley reported.
The report referred a number of matters to police to help in their investigation.
Operational changes made over the past two years include the expansion of the district’s internal audit division, tighter purchasing procedures, financial training and ethics training to address the auditor general’s finding of a workplace culture that allowed certain attitudes and activities to go unchecked.