WATCHDOG: BRING IN BUMP
Group: Marty must move to involve auditor
The city school department still can’t reveal details about thousands of dollars in student activity funds used to bankroll retirement parties, hire DJs and buy gifts for employees and more in what one fiscal watchdog said should trigger an investigation by the state auditor.
“One of the common themes throughout this is not making things clear and that’s a problem ... this seems to be much more than sloppy bookkeeping,” said Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which sent a letter to auditor Suzanne M. Bump yesterday asking for her to take action.
“Every minute we waste is a missed opportunity, the mayor needs to make it clear he wants the auditor to be involved,” Craney added.
An IRS audit, done earlier this summer but just released by Boston Public School officials yesterday, examined 16 student activity accounts from 2014. Parents donate to these funds to help pay for activities like clubs.
School administrators oversee the accounts, but money cannot be used for non-student activities or employee payroll.
The IRS audit found multiple instances of schools breaking the rules and paying employees under the table and buying services through vendors without filing tax returns.
Ultimately, BPS was required to pay more than $28,000 in back taxes and $2,000 in fines after paying vendors $47,177 without proper tax filings, the audit showed.
The audit exposed BPS spending $32,389 to improperly reimburse employees, buy gifts and pay overtime for employees and making off-the-book payments of $67,984 to workers and employees.
And while the audit notes there “appears to be no willful intent to avoid payroll taxes,” people spending down the funds gave multiple reasons for not properly recording payments.
“The individuals responsible for the school activity funds had various reasons for not having any payments go through the payroll system including: ‘those records were thrown out,’ ‘I was unaware of documentation needed,’ ... ‘I don’t have the names,’ ‘the work was not covered by our BPS budget,’” and more, the audit states.
The audit lists some payment information but leaves out employee names and specifics of what was purchased. Boston Latin School paid $15,200 for “proctors, various,” Harvard Kent Elementary spent nearly $11,000 on supervision for before- and after-school care and East Boston High spent $400 on disc jockey services, the audit states.
Some reimbursements went toward “gifts for employee events such as retirement or birth of a child,” the audit stated. And the Sarah Greenwood School is listed as improperly giving $19,916 in additional compensation, but the payment reason is “unknown” with the addendum “tp threw away receipts.”
That level of carelessness, Craney said, is “pretty unbelievable. No one loses $19,000.
“It’s pretty inexcusable that this is happening the way it is under the mayor’s watch,” he added.
A spokesman for Bump’s office said the auditor does not have the power to audit a municipal body unless a review is formally requested from that municipal government’s leadership.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh told WGBH radio yesterday he wanted to see Bump audit Mass Fiscal Alliance instead.