If we don’t demand specifics, campaign rhetoric won’t help us

It seems no matter what level of government is being examined, here in West Virginia we live down to our reputation of being poor followers of rules and bad stewards of taxpayer money. Last month, lawmakers learned problems with spending COVID-19 money made their way into many of our county school systems — not just the couple of which we had already been made aware.

“It seems like there is a massive problem and we should be reviewing everything,” Delegate Kayla Young said. “It seems like that we don’t have full control over what these (county school boards) … are spending.”

“Full control” might not be quite the right solution, but members of the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization were told legislative auditors found numerous concerns with how county public school systems handled COVID funding.

“The frequency of improper purchasing procedures and other … grant violations warranted a reassessment of risk and adjustment to the system’s capacity and structure,” said Brandon Burton, a research manager with the Legislative Auditor’s Office. “The current monitoring process lacks appropriate structure due to a lack of written policies and procedures for the cyclical monitoring process.”

According to a review of monitoring by the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Programs, 37 counties out of 54 monitored were found to be non-compliant for not following proper purchasing procedures, spending money on unallowable expenses, or exceeding indirect cost rates.

Again, while “full control” over what county boards are spending is a step too far, it is essential lawmakers find a way to clean up the mess. If the DOE’s job is to monitor that spending on behalf of the federal government, a reworking of the rules and renewed emphasis on monitoring and enforcement is essential.