School meals money system so lax fraud couldn’t be ruled out
THE school meal payment system in Anglesey was so lax that the council couldn’t be sure they weren’t being defrauded, council officers have admitted.
A report to councillors found that internal auditors could only offer “limited assurance” over school income collection arrangements after visits to three separate schools led to concerns.
During the visits, auditors found that some schools were still operating a manual paper system, while others depended on mobile payments via the School Comms app, leading to accounting inconsistencies and a lack of corporate monitoring.
The policies and procedures were also described as “outdated”, with the monitoring of debt varying between the island’s 43 primary schools.
In a bid to tackle these issues, an officer has now been appointed to improve the situation by offering training and trying to level the playing field.
The report presented to members of the audit committee said: “Most of the weaknesses found within the income collection processes adopted by schools were due to a lack of knowledge and training, i.e. the Learning Service has not issued schools with up-to -date policies, supported d by procedures and training.
“In addition, there is a lack of corporate compli- ance monitoring by the Learning Service to identify problems, leaving the council exposed to risks.”
The scale of the island’s school meal debt has not t yet been revealed, with officers promising to release e the figures by the next meeteeting.
The issue has hit the e headlines over recent weeks after similar issues were highlighted in neighbouring Gwynedd, where school meal debt reached £136,000 over a five-year period. Marc Jones, Anglesey’s 151 officer, told the audit committee meeting in Llangefni: “In this particular case, you have the ad added complication of schools which, w although under the council, co are legal entities in t their own right, with eac each having differing lev level of administrative support. su “Trying to devise a process that works for all in the same way is difficult, di as small schools sc have little or no ad admin support when the larg larger primaries do. “It’ “It’s a matter of trying to get a process that works acr across the range. The process used to be very man- ual but had been tried and tested over many years.
“The introduction of School Comms and a cashless system in some schools has complicated the system and makes it more difficult to reconcile.
“The system was implemented at a rush due to the need to spend grant funding, from what I understand, and the review didn’t follow this up when it should have done.
“There is nothing to suggest that money has definitely gone missing but it is so lax that we wouldn’t know.”
Chief executive Dr Gwynne Jones said: “The report is the report and there’s no doubting that this is not good enough. We must accept that.”
He added: “However, I’m assured that education department staff that are now in place were not in post when this was established, so I’m heartened by the quality of the improvement plan and I can assure you that it will be put in place.”