Broward school audit finds more problems
Maintenance department was subject to previous FBI investigation
Broward schools’ maintenance department continues to suffer from poor internal controls, two years after a district supervisor was convicted of federal bribery charges, a new audit shows.
The audit, conducted by Miami-based MDO Consultants, determined the district overpaid an asphalt contractor $30,000, bought materials without using required purchase orders and split large purchases to avoid competitive bids.
“We are aware that in some situations these things happen. When they happen, we try to take action against it,” Mark Dorsett, executive director of maintenance, told the district’s Audit Committee on Thursday. “Some of these things are not caught, but when they are caught, we correct them.”
This is the second major audit the school district conducted of asphalt, which is used mostly for athletic tracks, playgrounds and parking lots.
A 2017 audit found the district paid $150- to $300-per-hour rates for supervisors, laborers and installers, compared to $15 to $45 in Palm Beach County.
The district’s Physical Plant Operations Department also allowed contractors to mark up materials prices by as much as 150%. Palm Beach and Orange County schools restricted markups to 10% during similar time frames.
Audit committee members questioned why these problems haven’t been fixed.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” said Jaclyn Strauss, an accountant and parent who sits on the Audit Committee, referring to events being continually repeated. “I think everyone is sick of misuse of funds.”
The 2017 audit sparked an FBI investigation, where agents learned that Richard Ellis, a grounds supervisor, was accepting bribes from Alan Johnson, a painting subcontractor for Pence Sealcoating. Johnson agreed to cooperate with the FBI and wore a wire, and Ellis accepted more than $6,000 in kickbacks from Johnson.
Ellis was convicted of federal bribery charges in July 2020 and sentenced to 20 months in federal prison, while Johnson was convicted of witness tampering and was sentenced to a year of house arrest.
Johnson was the impetus for the new audit. He had seen some public records that showed the district’s current asphalt contractor, Atlantic Southern Paving & Sealcoating, appeared to be overcharging the district. He filed a complaint with the state Inspector General.
“I was just trying to make a point,” Johnson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
An official from Atlantic Southern & Paving couldn’t be reached.
Johnson alerted auditors that 12 of 77 invoices he reviewed included a separate billing for the removal of asphalt at $1.58 per yard, even though this charge is included elsewhere on the invoice.
The audit said the wording of the service is confusing, as it’s referred to as both “removal” and “removal and disposal” in different parts of an agreement.
“It is our understanding that Atlantic Southern Paving and Sealcoating claimed the reason for not including removal separately in all invoices was that in many cases, the asphalt removal was not done by them,” but by district maintenance staff, the audit said.
However, the maintenance staff said they didn’t remove the asphalt for the invoices in question.
Atlantic did reimburse the district for $5,297 in overbilling “based on our measurements of the repaired areas,” the audit found.
As for why large purchases above $5,000 were split, maintenance officials told auditors it was to expedite work. However, it’s a violation of district policies.
Richard Atzert, account manager for Atlantic Southern, told auditors he was following instructions Ellis gave him in 2018 when the contract was awarded. Ellis was indicted the next year.
“I was informed by Rich Ellis that any amounts over $5,000 would not be approved,” Atzert told auditors. “He suggested that I split the square foot quantities over multiple work orders that I had available to keep the amounts below that threshold.”
The district’s maintenance department, also known as Physical Plant Operations, has faced harsh criticism in multiple audits, reviews and grand jury reports.
A 2019 audit by the Council of Great City Schools warned the district’s maintenance problems have reached a crisis level, with a large backlog of work orders and expenses that are higher than other districts’.
“When you read this audit, it feels like this department has just been run amok,” then-Board member Robin Bartleman said in 2020. “There seems to be a lack of oversight, a lack of accountability.”