Broward schools to audit contract

$81M laptop contract subject of investigation

The Broward School District plans to audit an $81 million contract for laptops after a recent technology review identified widespread mismanagement and ethical concerns.

The new review will look at whether the district followed procedures and got the best value when they bought Lenovo laptops in 2016 as part of the $800 million bond referendum voters approved in 2014.

The low-end computers, many of which are now loaned out to students for distance learning, have been panned as ”Le No No’s” by teachers, students and School Board members. They’ve complained of short lifespans, small screen sizes, keys that fell off and other problems.

A spokesperson for Lenovo couldn’t be reached, despite attempts by phone and email Tuesday.

Chief Auditor Joris Jabouin said the district will start with the Lenovo contract but may also audit other large technology purchases made during the tenure of Tony Hunter, who was the district’s chief information officer from 2013 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2019.

The new audit is a response to criticism by the School Board and the district’s Audit Committee about lax controls related to the purchase of $17 million worth of Recordex flat screen interactive TVs, that were bought for classrooms and libraries.

The district hired HCT Accountants in Hollywood to conduct an audit after the South Florida Sun Sentinel raised numerous questions about the Recordex deal.

Jabouin said the district is looking to make changes to ensure problems uncovered in the Recordex contracts don’t happen again. Those issues include a lack of competitive bids, a failure to get input from an advisory committee or school users and the use of contract methods that avoided public scrutiny. Numerous district employees were unable to explain to auditors why Recordex was chosen.

“The policies and procedures will be reviewed to make sure we identify any gaps in controls so this kind of work in

the future can be done better,” Jabouin said.

The Recordex devices, which were bought starting in late 2015, were initially supplied by EDCO, a Georgia company whose CEO David Allen has close ties with Hunter.

The audit confirmed Hunter bought a house in Acworth, Ga., from Allen in March 2018 at more than $117,000 below market value. Hunter and Allen have said the house was bought “as is” and in need of numerous repairs. Hunter left the district in early 2019 and took a job working as a vice president for one of Allen’s companies.

The finding prompted the district to forward the audit to the State Attorney’s Office to review any potential ethics violations or criminal activity. That office has turned it over to the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecutor, which is leading a grand jury investigation on the practices of Broward and other school districts.

Hunter, reached Tuesday afternoon by phone, hung up after a Sun Sentinel reporter identified himself and asked for comment. A spokeswoman for EDCO said she would to see if the company

The Recordex audit revealed that the district took actions that concealed the purchases from the School Board, such as burying them in a 322-item audiovisual bid and splitting purchases so they fell just below the $500,000 threshold needed for board approval.

A review by the Sun Sentinel found the district paid far more for the Recordex devices than neighboring districts paid for similar products. In March 2019, Miami-Dade schools bought 800 Promethean ActivePanel Titanium boards for $2,340 each. At that time, Broward was paying $4,175 each for Recordex panels of the same size and similar quality and features.

The Broward district bought the devices from Dell Marketing, which used a third party vendor to buy them directly from EDCO.

Board member Donna Korn asked General Counsel Barbara Myrick if the district could take legal action against vendors to recoup any money the district may have overspent.

“If we can prove that we did not get comparative prices and that would was due to the involvement of the vendor, we probably could,” but it would be a tough task to prove, Myrick said. wanted to comment.