A school district superintendent in Arizona was recently accused of credit card misuse. The Tolleson Union High School District conducted an audit of its fiscal 2006 year and found evidence that spending was improperly documented and that some of the money raised through fund raising efforts may have been used improperly. The audit also found that monthly stipends were made to some employees for questionable purchases, such as cell phones, with some employees receiving incorrect salary payments.
In response to the audit, the Arizona Office of the Auditor General will be conducting an ongoing investigation. According to the superintendent, however, no one in the district misused the money purposely.
“It’s not an excuse,” said superintendent Kino Flores. “and I’m not making excuses for myself and the district. But, in our position, we believe we were doing the right thing, just the wrong way. We’ve corrected those and now we’re doing absolutely the right thing the right way.”
While it may be true that a few simple errors in documentation or mistakes in setting up school accounts is possible, some of the things caught by the auditors were concerning. For example, Flores made $26,000 in purchases with his school credit card, yet failed to support more than half of those purchases with any receipts.
To add more question to the validity of the purchases, Flores has repaid the district for all of those credit card purchases in question, whether they were determined to be appropriate or not. While some might say that’s almost the same as an admission of guilt, Flores sees it differently.
“We can always go back and see which ones are deemed approvable by our district attorney and then those can be reimbursed,” said Flores. “But at this point, we wanted to make sure that we followed the recommendations of the audit.”
Flores has been the superintendent for the district for 12 years, which further leads me to believe that he should have been well aware of the proper procedure for documentation of purchases and use of school money. Flores further contended that other district employees had access to his card. “Regardless, the credit card was titled ‘superintendent’s office’ so I will hold myself accountable for it,” Flores said.
Not surprisingly, he no longer has a credit card issued by the district.
In all, 298 purchases were made on the credit card during the audited period. The district only gathered receipts for 114 of these purchases, totaling $13,100. There were also several purchases that were deemed to be “inappropriate”, including spending on an excessive amount on traveling, purchasing employee gifts, paying for personal medical expenses, and paying for the maintenance of personal vehicles.
Flores also tried to justify non business-related meal purchases that he made with the card, stating the meals were purchased for business while trying to obtain outside investments in the district.
“I had personally brought the items to the attention of the board in 2002 to make sure that there was an understanding that these were for business meetings that would bring resources to our schools and our district,” Flores said. “And over the course of the last 10 years, I have raised well over $1.5 million.”
According to a letter that the district sent to the auditor, the money Flores raised went toward paying for classroom incentives and student scholarships. Regarding the accusation that some employees were being underpaid and some were being overpaid, Flores blamed that on computer error.
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